
Class. _J> 14 7 
Book 'b ^ 4 



)Opyriglit]^^_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




S/L^J-^^^-^ Xw^ 



THE AET 



OF LIVING 



BY / 

ELLEN aOODELL SMITH, M.D. 



*' Get health, for sickness is a cannibal that eats up all the life and youth 
it can lay hold of, and absorbs its own sons and daughters." 

—Emerson. 




AMHEEST, MASS., U.S.A. 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

1903. 



THE LIBRARY OF | 
CONGRESS, 1 


Two Copies 


Received 


MAR 17 


1903 


Copyright 
CLASS '^ 


Entry 
XXc. No. 


COPY B. 




X 



X 



•y 






Copyright, 1902, 

by 

Ellen Goodell Smith. 



Tress of 

Spkinofielr Printing and Binding Compant, 

SrniNGFiELD, :Mass. 



TO aiY VALUED FRIEND, 

EDWARD HOOKER DEWEY, M.D., 

WHOSE PRACTICAL SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT IS LEAD- 
ING MILLIONS AWAY FROM THE SELF-BONDAGE 
OF APPETITE, AND THUS EMANCIPATING 
WOMAN FROM PERSONAL AND DOMES- 
TIC SERVITUDE, THIS BOOK IS 
GRATEFULLY DEDICATED. 



OONTEIJrTS. 



PART I. 



Introductory, xix 

A letter — The desire of women for physiological instruc- 
tion — Why are there thousands of irresponsible national 
guests — A problem for the consideration of philanthropists 
and conservators of the race — The dependence of man upon 
woman's ability to mold and educate the race — The impor- 
tance of her work in creating the child-world to live out the 
highest ideals. 

PARLOR TALKS WITH WOMEN. 
The Ideal Temple of the Human Soul, - - - 3 

The importance of good material — Our homes and condi- 
tions now and in the future — Why is reform expensive — How 
to improve by Health Culture in the Kitchen — Woman's in- 
fluence in the home when she is a model of health. 

The Way in and Out, - 7 

W^hy the lack of common sense in feeding the race — Nega- 
tive food — How fashion decrees our customs — The army of 
cooks — The despair of the housewife — The cook and doctor 
partnership — How disease gets in and becomes "old age mat- 
ter" — How to get it out — Why we eat — Expense of dirt and 
rubbish eaten — How we pay for luxuries. 

Our Eating Habits, 12 

Eating a fine art — ^IVIastication — Nutrition — Dr. Dewey's 
new physiology — Objections to it — One and two meals a day 
— Ancient customs — Popularity of "No-Breakfast" — Its ad- 



X co:srTENTS. 

vantages — Relief to women — Light suppers — Objections an- 
swered — Losing flesh and growing young. 

THE SCIENCE OF LIVING. 

Important Paper by Edward Hooker Dewey, M.D., - 17 
How the Science of Living is taught in cookbooks — Facts 
about the brain — Its relations to the body — How bodily pow- 
ers are restored — New physiology — Stomach a machine — The 
brain a dynamo — What food is and its office — Self-feeding 
power of brain — Illustrative cases — Condition of body and 
mind after sleep — When shall we eat — What shall we eat — 
Hunger — Acid fruits — Meats — Food after fasting — How 
shall we eat — Food not a source of energy — Underweight — 
Overweight late in life — Thirst — Alcoholics — Digestive en- 
ergy — Insanity — How to attain the highest health. 

Personal Experience, - - ----- 24 

Early life — In a sanitarium — ^A student — College — Lecture 
trips — Progressive methods — Success — Developing "massage" 
— Pioneer work — Original methods — Work as teacher — Vege- 
tarianism — Flesh eating — Illustration — The diet question — 
"Sure cures" — Improved methods — Rest — A letter — Experi- 
ence with the sick on the "No-Breakfast" plan — Personal ex- 
perience — Literary work — One meal a day — Old age — Youth 
in age — How to cultivate it. 

Variety in Food, - - 32 

The results of complex feeding — Benefit the doctor and the 
imdertaker — Description of a dinner in 1711 — Fussiness 
about food — How to cure it — Lost appetite — Hov\^ to find 
it — Invalid's tray — Fruitarians in California — Bread and 
fruit — Vegetables — Animal food — Change from complex to 
plain diet. 

Who are Vegetarians and What is a Hygienic Diet ? - 37 
Phases of the question — Divisions — Fish eating vegeta- 
rians — Not so inhuman to kill the fish — Altruism — An inci- 
dent — Animal products — The cow and the hen — The Japan- 



COJS^TEis^TS. Xi 

ese — The Chinese — Fine points in dietetics — Meat not neces- 
sary — "Healthy Food"" not always the best — Dietetic rocks — 
Substitutes for meat — Animal names for mixed dishes — Hy- 
gienic dietary — Well cooked foods — No one rule that will 
apply to all — Errors in excessive use of nitrogenous foods — 
Science or sentiment the foundation of theories — The force 
of truth — The ideal code of dietetic ethics. 

Sun-Cooked or Raw Food, ------ 43 

Classes of cooks — Nothing new — Ancient priests — The first 
professional cook — Primitive man and his habits — Argu- 
ments for not cooking — The raw foods we eat — Edenic diet — 
No kitchen, no cook — Rich concentrations — Animal prod- 
ucts — Destructive qualities in raw or cooked food, which 
and why — How to get in and out of dietetic errors. 

Atmospheric Food, - - - - - - - - 48 

Not a new patent — Very much alive — Many people refuse 
it — What there is in it besides just air — The freest and 
cheapest of all foods — Living on odors of food, trees, and 
plants — Health seekers after air food — It 's right at our 
doors, "ready for immediate absorption"' — Business air, 
church air, home air, hospital air, the air of health, illness, 
hurry and worry — The air of people we meet, the doctor, the 
nurse — Great importance as food — Economy of it — Invisible 
food — Highly organized elements in air — Undreamed-of 
changes to come in the near future — Not a dream. 

The Staff of Life. -------- 54 

Then and now — Improved methods — Poor bread and in- 
temperance — How to test flour — Bad bread — Good bread — 
French bread — Vienna bread — Sour bread — Ignorant cooks — 
Luck — The science of bread making — The art of making good 
bread — Graham flour — Its poor quality and why — How to 
select the best — Flour of entire wheat — Its origin and value. 



Xll CONTENTS. 

PART II. 

HEALTH CULTURE COOKING. 

Bread Making, ------ 61 

Yeast bread — White, entire wheat and Graham — How te 
make it, and the importance of best material and baking it 
well done — Breads raised with baking powder, how made, 
baked and steamed. 

Unleavened Breads, 65 

Graham, entire wheat and corn — Gems, biscuit — Rolls — 
Wafers — Diamonds — Mush rolls — Brown bread — Zwieback. 

Cereals, ---------- 70 

Their food value — The mouth a predigesting laboratory — 
How to cook and eat cereals. 

Vegetables, - 73 

Their value, quality and best methods of cooking to pre- 
vent waste of nutriment — How to cook all green vegetables — 
Legumes, their nutritive value and methods of cooking when 
ripe — Legume soups and purees. 

Fruits, - - - - 81 

How to eat them raw and how best to cook them — Caution 
in commercial canned fruits — General directions for canning 
— Tomatoes — Fruit juices — Dried fruits, how to prepare 
them for the table — Dangers in commercial dried fruits, 
jams, jellies and marmalades. 

Animal Foods, - ------ 85 

Modern methods of cooking them burdensome — Making it 
easy — Value of flesh foods — Milk — Eggs — What they are — 
Excessive use injurious — Care of animals — Cold storage, 
canned and salted meats. 

Meat Cookery, - - - - - - - - 87 

How to roast, boil, stew and broil — Fowls — Fish — Albu- 
men and its value — Eggs, omelets, poached and jellied — 
Soups, purees and stews. 



COXTEJs^TS. Xlll 

Nuts as Food, . . . - - 92 

Their use in place of meat — What to do without them — 
How to prepare them for the table. 

Vegetable Oils and Fried Foods, ----- 94 
Better methods than frying — Best fat to use — Purity and 
economy in vegetable oils — Olive oil, Wesson oil and Ko-Nut 
— How made and where. 

Salads, . - . - 96 

Their antiquity — Composition — Seasonings — Mixtures. 

Seasonings and Condiments, ------ 97 

Why natural flavor cannot be restored by seasoning — 
Careless methods of cooking — Sugar — Fruit flavors — Liquors 
— Spices — Stored up refuse and the results. 

Desserts, . - . _ . ... 99 

Why we have them — Woman the caterer — Reversing cus- 
tom — A burden to the cook — Flesh formers — Something in 
place of them. 

Pastries, 101 

How plainly made. 

Cake, - . - I02 

Time consumed in making it — Why we have it 305 nights 
in the year — Making sweets. 

Composition of Food Products and Food Combinations 103 
Waste in food products — Prof. Atwater's table of waste — 
Elements obtained from food — Combinations — Animals make 
their own until civilized — Primitive man^Civilized man — 
Artificial chemist — Appetite — General rules — Practical ap- 
plication — Nuts — Meats — Digest food in the mouth and why 
— Words of caution to vegetarians — Legumes — Balancing 
diet. 

Summing up the Cooking Department, - - - 108 
The products used — How this cookery is adapted to all 



XIV CONTENTS. 

classes of dietists — Animal products; how obtained — Milk 
drinking — Objections answered — Reduction of labor — Chil- 
dren's diet — Too much lunching, and why — Lady Henry 
Somerset on evils of drink among women — Inhuman to chil- 
dren, why — Social burdens of women — Inhuman to them- 
selves — The new woman. 

PART III. 

THOUGHTS LEADING TOWARD PRACTICAL IDEALS. 

Pearls of Wisdom from the writings of Jos. M. Wade, Edi- 
tor and Publisher of "Fibre and Fabric,''' Boston, - - 115 

Educators from HoRxVce Fletcher's book, "Glutton or Epi- 
cure." Author of several books. Published by Herbert S. 
Stone & Co., Chicago, 12a 

Social Chats with My Friends, the Young Home Makers. 

Building and Furnishing the Home, - - - 124 

Location — Comfort — Ventilation — Sleeping rooms — Sun 

Parlor — Library — Bric-a-brac — Draperies — Living rooms — 

Plants — Dining room — Kitchen — ^]VIodel pantry — Heating 

and other things pertaining to the house that is a home. 

Sanitation in the Home, 127 

Fruits — Drinks — The sink — Fumigation — Lamps — Food — 
Care of things — Death in Kisses — Meats — Vegetables — How 
to drink — The dishcloth — Fevers — Rubbish — Close rooms — 
Air — Poisons in fabric furnishings — Sensitive people — Tow- 
els — Handkerchiefs, how to cleanse them — Combs and brushes 
— Beds — Money — Pets and children — Thought sanitation. 

The Cook Stove and the Fire, 135 

Save the Body and Use the Brain, - - - - 137 

What Shall We Do.? 140 

The Care of Food, 143 

Clearing the Table and Dish Washing, - - - 144 



CONTENTS. XV 

Economy in Food Supplies, 145 

Drinks, - - - ^^8 

Sunday Dinners, -------- 150 

Courtesy at Home, - - - - - - " - 152 

The Perils in Fat and How to Dispose of It, - - 153 
Hints for all the obese. 

Work and Duty, - ■ - 155 

Brief Refreshments for Leisure Moments, - - - 156 

Prepare to Live, 1^5 

Length of life increasing — What our aim should be — 
Where does the blame lie ? — Why it "s never too late to pre- 
pare to live — Our pet infirmities — How to dispose of them — 
Unconscious suicides — Living to die one of the occupations 
of the race — Public educators — The world a theater — Paus- 
ing at the half century milestone and counting the gray 
hairs and wrinkles— In our prime then— The orderly temple 
— Its needs — A special message for all readers. 



PREFACE 



Only a minority of the human family have made a 
study of the Art of Living to live. With the majority 
the art of living to die has become contagious. With 
the great masses there has been no real principle in- 
volved, except that of existence or staying here, and the 
gratification of every phj^sical sense, until the animal 
has assumed control of the man or the spiritual. 

To educate into life in all its glorious possibilities and 
make intelligent use of its abundant resources are within 
the comprehension of the present intelligence of the race. 
This book is written in response to a call that would not 
be silenced, for a plain, practical method of teaching 
and living that will lead to a higher development in 
every direction. To making books there is no limit. 
Except as a teacher along progressive lines, the list would 
not be increased by this addition. The title suggests 
cooking, but that is only a small part of the book. We 
are flooded with books that teach this art, and the major- 
ity of the teachings lead toward the contraction rather 
than the expansion of life. 

Through ignorance — the greatest of all sins — the de- 
mand has become great, almost assuming a mania, for 
this destructive instruction. Some of the wisest and 
best who supply the demand are specimens of health and 
do not hesitate to tell us they would be ill should they 
live according to their own health-destroying formulas. 



XVlll PREFACE. 

At the same time they do much good in various waySj, 
and strive to educate in the right direction, and for those 
who desire to be liberated, education is the only way out. 
Those who prefer the bondage of illness, suffering, and 
sacrifice of themselves, of their friends in care and anx- 
iety for them, and of their means to meet the expense, 
that they may live but half a life in a half dead body 
must continue until they realize by some sharp expe- 
rience that it is not making the most and best of life to 
suffer in either body, soul or purse. 

This book deals with some of the living topics of the 
day in the form of brief essays. Dr. Edward Hooker 
Dewey, the pioneer in giving to the world a new physiol- 
ogy in the Art of Living, and whose books should be 
found in every home, has attracted the attention of some 
of the most learned physicians at home and abroad and 
met with their hearty approval. By special request he 
has contributed to this book a chapter of scientific wis- 
dom that will be studied with deep interest and its full 
value received when practically applied. The cooking 
department, so elaborate in other books, in this which 
means better health and longer life for the race is plain, 
condensed, and sufficiently ample to meet all family 
needs. 

Aids for the housewife and educating brevities on a 
variety of helpful topics are made practical in this book^^ 
that aims to teach the constructive Art of Living. 

Ellen Goodell Smith. 

Amherst, Mass., U. S. A., 
January, 1903. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

" Let no one presume to give advice to others that has not first given 
good advice to himself."— Se/icca. 

LooKiXG over some papers yellow with time, and also 
thinking about the introduction to this book, my eyes 
fell upon the following letter : — 

"St. Paul, July 15th, 1870. 
■^^Mrs. E. G. Smith, M. D. : 

"Dear Madam — We, the undersigned, fully appreciat- 
ing the great importance of a more general diffusion of 
physiological knowledge among our own sex, would sin- 
cerely request, if not incompatible with your professional 
engagements, that you deliver in this city one or more 
lectures on subjects pertaining to health, at such time 
and place as may suit your convenience." 

Then follows a long list of names, many of them the 
most prominent in the city. As if by magic a familiar 
scene rose before me, including a large expectant audi- 
ence of women seeking instruction in the ways of health 
for themselves and their families. Xever in all my pre- 
vious Avork had I found a more progressive and wide- 
awake body of women than were those whom I met in 
the infant city of St. Paul, Minn. 

As they, by adopting better methods of treatment and 
living, were restored to health and taught how to remain 
in health, the oft-recurring question — not only from 



XX INTRODUCTORY. 

women but from men — was, "Why have not our family 
physicians told us these things?" "Have you asked 
them?" "Yes, but they often evade a direct reply, and 
we are now finding out that if they had taught us many 
things we ought to know we never should have developed 
such physical conditions as are ours to-day." 

Women have made a demand for this book. Many of 
them are representative women, seeking not only self- 
improvement but to improve the race. In frequent con- 
versations with them they have admitted their inability 
to cope successfully with existing conditions that con- 
stantly demand time, energy, sympathy, and purse. To- 
day their vision extends and embraces a broader and 
more practical method of work. Their eyes have been 
opened to facts that now confront us with a mighty force 
that somehow must be met. We have been waging a 
fearful warfare of aggression against conditions that 
meet us at every step. The results, although satisfac- 
tory for a time, have not been permanent, and these ques- 
tions arise : Why such an excess of crime, criminals, and 
prisons? Why is the world always preparing for war 
instead of peace? Why are sanitariums, hospitals, and 
homes crowded with invalids, insane, cripples, imbeciles,, 
and other irresponsibles ? Why do we continually expect 
and prepare for the care of unfortunates ? Why punish,, 
correct, suppress, and so court a repetition of the condi- 
tions we try in vain to remedy? Wise men tell us "we 
are what we eat." Yet science has never labored so in- 
dustriously to discover the hidden mysteries for the 
proper development of the race through suitable food. 

Pliysicians multiply so rapidly oue is led to believe- 
the entire world is in need of their services. The legal 



INTKODUCTORY. XXI 

profession increase and ply their vocation with untiring 
zeal. The ministry and methods for healing the souls 
and improving the morals of the race were never so plen- 
tiful, well organized, and financially equipped as at the 
present time. Health and sanitary boards arise almost 
"in a night" and unmercifully pursue the fatal "mi- 
crobes," and yet the tide of untimely death sweeps on. 
Poverty and crime are still with us, and luxurious crimi- 
nals leave palatial mansions for the kindly shelter of 
dungeon walls. 

For the protection and care of the thousands of these 
distinct classes of the nation's guests, we support insti- 
tutions that never should obtain standing room in a 
civilized nation, and should cause us to blush with shame 
that they are necessary for the moral, physical, and na- 
tional safety of an enlightened people. Instead of this, 
however, we ^^oint with pride to the huge and expensive 
mauseoleums that often occupy and overlook the most 
magnificent in nature's varied landscape and in which 
are buried millions of living victims. 

A nation that indulges in such luxuries (?) should 
never mention "hard times," but rather consider where 
and how the money goes, then bear in mind that hard 
times would be impossible to a healthy, happy, and tem- 
perate people. But this desirable condition will never 
be reached until we consider cause and effect in a broader 
light than has yet been generally recognized by the most 
wise and learned philanthropists. 

There must exist and be in active operation causes 
with which public servants and conservators of health, 
order, and morals are not familiar. Time and money 
might be more wisely expended should they turn their 



XXn INTFtODUCTOllY. 

attention to the Art of Living and seriously consider if 
we as a nation can afford to support existing conditions 
and also what makes them necessary and an inseparable 
part of the body politic. The way of relief would no 
longer lead toward an invitation of the conditions we 
would improve and banish into oblivion, but rather to- 
ward the true Art of Living for the best education and 
highest development of the entire human race. 

In these pages will be found the key that opens the 
door to a practical demonstration of truth, which the 
readers may apply to their daily life. The author is a 
thorough optimist, never presenting negative conditions 
except by way of illustration or as an object lesson. 

The body was designed to be so thoroughly well that 
it would care for itself without such a vast amount of 
time and energy being spent in giving attention to it. 
Care it needs like any other piece of mechanism, but less 
work, thought, and worry about it. 

This book is out of the ordinary line, and in its con- 
struction, originality and condensation, it will appeal 
to all readers. The cuisine is practical, thoroughly 
American, and health-inducing rather than disease- 
inviting. To meet the requirements of all, different 
lines of diet have been discussed, according to each their 
special merits. Although animal food is not considered 
the worst nor the best, yet, to meet the needs of all, a 
chapter on animal foods and plain methods of cooking 
them is also included. 

The luxuries of civilization have led us into bewilder- 
ing complexities and | erplexities of "riotous living.'' It 
is time to call a halt and return like the "prodigal son,"' 
not to the feast of the fatted calf of luxurious living, of 



INTRODUCTORY. Xxiii 

which we have enjoyed ( ?) a surfeit, but to the simplicity 
of well prepared nutritious foods that build and repair 
the human temple. 

With this object in view, the authors thoughts are 
sent to her friends and sister co-laborers in the emanci- 
pation of woman from domestic servitude, and through 
her to remove the badge of ancestral bondage to ill- 
advised dietetic customs. 

Upon us the future waits. We are an important fac- 
tor in the propagation and continuation of the species. 
We prepare the soil for the growth and development of 
the race. Is it not then of the utmost importance that 
the predigested food that lays the foundation of the 
embryo race, and builds the habitation of the expanding 
infant soul, be of the best and purest quality ? Women 
are persistent, insistent, and successful in carrying out 
whatever they in earnest attempt, no matter what the 
obstacles in the way. Then why not in this matter of 
Health Culture through the Art of Living that shall 
produce a superior quality of people? To us, mankind 
looks for the creation and molding, through education 
and influence, the childhood race. With such confidence 
in our power, with its responsibilities, and its wonderful 
possibilities, let us not forget that within the real, or what 
we call the realities of life, is grown the seed that germi- 
nates and reaches out toward the development of ideals,, 
be they high or low. What we enjoy to-day is the result 
of the ideals begun by those before us. What those- 
who come after us enjoy will be the ideals formed as 
begun to be by the men and women whom we help to» 
create. 



Part 1. 
PARLOR TALKS WITH WOMEN 



The influence of woman is beyond estimate. 
Keep it on the right side of men. Feed them, as 
well as yourselves and your children, on the sub- 
stantial bread of life, then we may expect to a«ld 
Peufect Health to the marvels of twentieth 
century progress. 



THE IDEAL TEMPLE OF THE 
HUMAN SOUL. 

'• Ye are the temple of God." 

Everything in the material world has its first crea- 
tion in the spiritual or invisible world. Our homes are 
our spiritual ideals materialized and brought in touch 
with our physical senses. When we desire to build a 
material home in which to locate we first idealize the 
building that later, under the touch of scientific and 
skillful artists, stands before us the creative embodi- 
ment of our ideal be it high or low. 

To create the human temple we should also have an 
ideal and endeavor to make ourselves conform to the 
highest standard possible. To do this successfully re- 
quires the best material with which to build. But in 
building we rarely stop to consider an ideal of just how 
we desire to look or how perfect the temple should be in 
all its parts so wonderfully and harmoniously adjusted 
by the Divine Architect. God-made human temples are 
one thing, man-made human temples are quite at vari- 
ance with the original design, and fall far short of their 
highest development. 

The majority of our homes are filled with the results^ 
of catering to the negative wants, not the positive needs^ 
of the human temple. But the day is dawning when the 
•Goddess of Wisdom with the light of experience will con- 



4 THE ART OF LIVING. 

sume the desire for catering unwisely, the hours of labor 
will diminish, and all work will become a pleasure. This 
means time for undeveloped souls to develop and educate 
themselves according to their ideals that have been 
nearly smothered by the heavy relentless hand of toil, 
mental and physical, that often is entirely unnecessary. 
This means, too, that we shall cease following along tra- 
ditional lines, fixing up and patching up our human 
temples and then wondering why they are not in first- 
class order. 

Health is our first right and just as much of it as we 
are capable of manufacturing. The body should be so 
well made and cared for, so completely charged with 
health from head to foot, that there will be no room for 
the tenant called Pain and his numerous offspring. None 
but ourselves can set the limit and each must be a law 
unto himself as to his mode of cultivation. Rules may 
be formulated for general observance but, as each per- 
son has an individuality of his own, he will from neces- 
sity create certain laws that pertain to himself. Hence 
he cannot justly say to another, "This is the only way," 
neither can he in justice to himself say that he has 
reached the top or that his present methods are not sub- 
ject to improvement. 

To reform the world has proven expensive along every 
line. To improve and teach will produce far more sat- 
isfactory results. There is no business in the world con- 
ducted in such an unscientific, unpractical manner as the 
formation of human temples. They are builded of in- 
ferior material, without thought, pattern, or model. 
Hence the world has been overwhelmed with the work, 
care, and responsibility of trying to re-form or make 



THE IDEAL TEMPLE OE THE HUMAN SOUL. 5 

over that which should have been better made before 
materializing in visible form. When, where, and by 
whom shall the higher ideals begin to take form if not 
through the men and women of the ever-present now 
with its grand opportunity ? The bodily temple must be 
huilded from good material that its foundations be en- 
during. Muscle, brain, nerves, and organs must be fed 
from the living fountain of blood, and this is made from 
the products of the cook rooms all over the land ; be it 
good or not it must build and keep the temple in repair. 
The culture of health or sickness in the home begins in 
the kitchen, and what we eat tells the story of what we 
are. In our kitchens and dining rooms are prepared the 
temples inclosing the souls that create communities, 
states and nations. From the homes go forth every day 
the toiling millions who have been preparing for the im- 
mense work of the world in every line of activity. 

Woman is the home maker. She is also largely the 
creator of customs, and her rapid growth and develop- 
ment along all lines she chooses to touch with her pres- 
ence have made her a powerful influence. If then, with 
all her up-to-date physical drawbacks, she is capable of 
such influence, where will she stand when she restores to 
herself her birthright Health in its perfect meaning? 
When she is no longer in the toils of physical torture, the 
victim of numberless ills, the slave of disease labeled with 
a thousand names, that demand an ever-increasing 
army of physicians to meet the ceaseless cry for relief 
from Pain — avoidable if only she knew it, and no part 
of the Divine plan. 

It is time to wake up, walk out from this bondage, 
extend our hand to man, demand the highest and best in 



6 THE ART OF LIVING. 

him, and cease peopling the earth with an army of weak- 
lings, who cannot help dying young, because we have not 
yet learned the positive law of life that creates their 
bodies good enough to live in ! 

Mental stupidity and ignorance have been in the 
ascendency. A few clearer heads arise now and then, 
strike a better way, that causes the world first to gape 
and stare — "Oh ! ah ! another fad," — but later to bring 
up the rear. 

We cannot set our ideals too high for these temples of 
the soul. How vital that they represent all that is best 
in the present manhood and womanhood, that the future 
may more nearly meet the Divine requirement. 



THE WAY IN AND OUT. 

•• One pound of learning requires ten pounds of common senso to 
^pply it." 

There is nothing in all the world's economies where 
the above saying is more applicable than in the Art of 
Living, and none where common sense is so often defi- 
cient even to stupidity. 

It would be the part of wisdom to spend as little time 
and effort in cookery as possible, but the reverse is true. 
The cooks manipulate the living products into things of 
death and call them food. Not a farmer in all the land 
would dare feed the animals under his care with such 
impoverished food as is daily set upon his own table. 
One need not look outside of his own home to prove that 
in our kitchens are manufactured from the very best 
material the things that cannot but produce the negative 
conditions of gluttony, intemperance, disease, and death. 
Those are the best cooks who can make the most pala- 
table and nutritious dishes from the fewest materials, 
and this would be real hygienic or health culture cook- 
ery. Everything would be so excellent in its simplicity 
it would not require the addition of various doses of this, 
that, and the other to perfect its quality. But this cus- 
tom has not yet taken a very firm grasp upon those who 
prepare our food. Hence we find a surplus of negative 
food, — bread sour or half baked, vegetables ruined, meats 
badly cooked, fruits doctored into sweet, sticky, indi- 
gestible deceptions, and pies, cakes, and puddings that 
would give a hyena the dyspepsia ! 

It has come to this that unless one keeps right in line 



8 THE ART OF LIVING. 

with combination cookery and foreign names he would 
be puzzled to select a dinner from the modern improved 
menu. Simplicity long since gave place to the decree of 
custom, that fashions our dishes to meet the demand of 
the cultivated civilized appetites of the race. Our food is 
pattied, bisqued, souffled, stuffed, creamed, Lyonnaised, 
spiced, pickled, and frizzled almost to death's door be- 
fore it appears upon the table. The once well furnished 
pantry has become a wareroom of implements, many of 
them labor-makers instead of labor-savers. Every spare 
corner is tilled with bottles, boxes, packages, holding 
mysterious contents that are supposed in some magical 
way to improve our food, but really disguise it in such 
a negative way that often one cannot tell from the taste 
what the foundation article was. 

Perhaps the army of cooks in the world exceeds in num- 
bers any other, but in the matter of drill they are away 
below the standard of a good workman, and but few, 
comparatively, approach the word "excellent." But the 
cook should stand at the top, and if not there, it should 
be her ambition to get there as soon as possible, and when 
she thoroughly understands her business there need be 
no clashing between the housewife and her helpers. To- 
day we are compelled to install the untutored foreigners 
in our kitchens, teach them if we can, and endure them 
because we must. By the time we have them well under 
way they inform us they are going to leave. They pack 
their bundle and depart, feeling themselves fully compe- 
tent to cook. The housewife says, "What are we 
to do ? I 've had six girls within a year ; they are all 
about alike and leave as soon as they can make bread and 
cook the breakfast." She seriously considers the prob- 



THE WAY IN AND OUT. 9 

lem of no food and says, "If people could exist without 
eating, how easy life would be !" Others who do their 
own cooking cry out from the midst of pastries and cakes, 
"What shall we have for dinner ? One meal is no sooner 
done than the next must begin to be ; it is eat, eat, all the 
time and we are about discouraged.'' And thus we 
women bemoan the exhausting and monotonous toil; in 
vain we quote the old adage, 

" Man's work is from sun to sun, 
Woman's work is never done," 

then go right on doing it in the same old treadmill fash- 
ion. The doctor and the cook have been in close part- 
nership ever since the ancient priest divided his art of 
soul and body healing and gave the bodies of the race 
over to the doctors. It is plain to every one who devotes 
a moment's thought to this matter that the practice has 
been, "You feast them and I '11 dose them !" No one 
will deny the necessity for this, for what else could be 
done, with all our learning and common sense set aside, 
except to educate thousands of doctors to counteract the 
results of the disastrous work of the cooks? Eat and 
dose has been the universal fashion, and in many in- 
stances the dose stands on the table to be taken as soon 
as the meal is done. Oh, woman, do you not with all 
your energies desire to be released from this destructive 
partnership? Then open your eyes to the conditions 
about you ; take up a new line and assist in the emanci- 
pation of yourself, for you alone are competent to turn 
the tide toward the culture of health through the Art of 
Living. From the food productions of the world, vege- 
table and animal, we obtain our supplies. In variety 



10 THE ART or LIVING. 

there is great abundance and, well selected, cheap enough 
for the lightest purse. Good sense used in this matter 
of food alone would banish poverty, and, with good 
nutrition, intemperance in and out of the home would 
lose its foothold and each would soon be numbered with 
the past. 

It is not the quantity we consume that gives us the 
best health, but it is what the vital economy is able to 
appropriate or use in the way of growth and repair from 
the food consumed. All else becomes waste — dirt to be 
cast out like ashes from a furnace ; if not, then the accu- 
mulation of rubbish in the body becomes the primary 
cause of what we politely name disease. This is no more 
nor less than dirt swept into and along the streams of 
life and deposited in bones and tissues. And when the 
human temples begin to grow stiff and lame and over-fat 
we are gravely informed that we are getting old — this is 
old age matter and in the course of nature to be ex- 
pected ! But these things need not be if we are obedient 
to the laws of life, and work as industriously for the cul- 
tivation of health as we have for the cultivation of dis- 
ease and "old age." 

We need not try to see how cheaply we can live as to 
dollars and cents, for that is unwise mental economy, 
but the thought should be to see how much real nutritive 
value we can obtain from every dollar spent, by suitable 
preparation and correct habits of eating. When this 
side of the question is examined we shall find that as a 
people we annually spend millions of dollars for those 
things that cannot in any way contribute to our health, 
strength, or endurance, or aid us in living beyond a cen- 
tury as we should. These things enter into the weari- 



THE WAY IN AND OUT. 11 

some and unnecessary cooking and feastings that woman 
imposes upon herself, for herself and her children, more 
than for the adult male population. 

In food supplies we should demand quality rather than 
size and quantity; then, properly prepared, served, and 
eaten, one is satisfied with the table. There will be no 
call for extras or fancy dishes. The business of eating 
is for building and repairing and the personal temple 
should receive the best substantial material if we expect 
it to wear well and withstand the storms of life. Well 
prepared food requires but little seasoning to render it 
acceptable to a normal appetite. When we have crept 
along in our swaddling clothes of dainties and reached 
that delightful milestone in our progress, we shall hold 
up our heads, get on our feet, and be able to set aside 
many of the tempting et ceteras that at present form a 
part of each meal, to say nothing of the teas, lunches, 
dinners, banquets, and light refreshments at home and 
abroad at all times of day and night. Truly we are a 
"gluttonous race" and are paying dearly for it. The 
actual expense of these articles in the food eaten — super- 
fluous but customary — is perhaps one half or more of the 
entire expense in the culinary department. But that is 
little compared to the time saved to woman and health 
gained in the home by at least partial banishment of the 
present excess. 



OUR EATING HABITS. 

'♦ Habit is a cable ; we weave a thread of it each day and it becomes 
so strong we cannot break it."— Horace Mann. 

Eating is an art — a fine art if we make it so. It 
slionld be made a stud}'', for it requires great intelligence 
to render it a healthful, life-giving process. If one eats 
merely for the pleasure derived from the sense of taste, 
then, as the nerves of taste are located in the mouth, de- 
tain the food there as long as possible, or until the taste 
is entirely extracted from it. Be sure you need it, then 
take plenty of time to enjoy every mouthful, making the 
business of eating as important as any other work. This 
is the only way, — by perfect mastication which insures 
complete insalivation, to obtain the full value of nutri- 
tion from our food. We may eat little and be well nour- 
ished, eat much and starve. Our food should be free 
from excessive w^aste. We have been taught that for 
physiological reasons a large amount of waste necessitat- 
ing bulk was necessary for correct digestive function, 
but that theory is not as prominent as formerly. There 
will be plenty of waste if we do not swallow bran, coarse 
meat fiber, corn hulls, tough bean skins, potato skins, 
fruit skins, the woody, stringy cellulose of vegetables, 
and hard wood}^ seeds of small fruits. There is very 
little nutriment in the succulent fruits and vegetables, 
the water or juice they contain being all there is of spe- 
cial value. 

That people consume two or three times the amount of 
food they should is no longer a disputed point. This 
being the fact it is plain to any observer that the entire 



OUR EATING HAJJITS. 13 

digestive apparatus is daily seriously overtaxed. And 
not only this but the brain and entire nervous system 
are heavily involved, and even the soul itself, for we 
must not forget that it takes soul power to digest food. 
We must have a clear brain full of hope and cheer if we 
expect good digestion, or to do our best work in any sort 
of labor. It is not the necessary work that wearies and 
wears us out, but the unnecessary work that we igno- 
rantly impose upon the human temple in which we dwell 
Penalties will follow disobedience, and the bank of life 
will burst or break long before its time if the drafts are 
too heavy. 

Gluttony is the easily besetting sin of our luxurious 
civilization. We cannot touch a more tender spot than 
the eating habits of the race — tender because of its won- 
derful suggestive and attractive power, and pitiful be- 
cause of its destructive tendencies. 

Since Dr. Dewey gave to the world a new physiology, 
an unusual interest has been manifest toward emancipa- 
tion out of gluttonous and luxurious living, and into a 
higher and better life physically, morally, and spirit- 
ually. His ideas, that were at first doubtfully glanced 
at by the multitude and classed as the latest "fad," have 
already won popularity all over the civilized world. 

The first opposing cry was, "What ! no breakfast ! How 
are we going to work on an empty stomach ? We should 
collapse before ten o'clock. JSTonsense ! We can do with- 
out supper much better." And when the idea of no food 
in acute diseases and of protracted fasting for the radical 
cure of chronic ailments, inebriates, and the insane 
dawned upon the world that was worse yet and the man 
must be a lunatic to suggest such absurd ideas. But 



M THE ART OF LIVING. 

that is not all ; hundreds and thousands are now adopt- 
ing the one meal a day plan to their decided advantage 
in every way. "That will do for lazy people and brain 
workers/' you say. Yes, but brain workers are not lazy 
by any means, and both body and brain are kept in better 
condition with less food. Millions of the hardest labor- 
ers upon the globe eat but once a day and are specimens 
of health and endurance. 

We live in stirring times. People move more rapidly, 
think more quickly, act more speedily in anything that 
appeals to them, and so the thousands, now going into 
millions, have investigated and adopted these practical 
methods that mean so much for the race. And best of 
all they are found among the most cultured and intelli- 
gent of the world's workers. And wherever we turn we 
meet those who have become familiar with the words 
"no breakfast" and "fasting,'' although the great ma- 
jority do not yet know what those words so pregnant 
with enlightened science really mean. However, when 
we who know proceed to enlighten them by answering 
their questions their doubts are set aside. N'othing in 
recent years has made such remarkable progress in so 
brief a time, and one rarely finds a magazine or paper 
of note that has not contained something of these new 
thought ideas in attractive form. 

In health and physical culture magazines we find more 
strongly emphasized than ever better nutrition for the 
world through less eating and gluttony. We find also 
one meal a day, a fast from one day to three, six, or ten, 
and from two to four weeks recommended as perfectly 
wise and safe in many cases of illness. Only those who 
have had practical experience in these matters have com- 



OUR EATING HABITS. 15 

puted the time and labor saved in cooking and the great 
reduction in expenses — not only for food, fuel, and as- 
sistance but in medicines and doctor's visits. And in 
rest for women none but they can do that branch of the 
subject justice. 

What means the non-appearance of breakfast, the 
most perplexing meal of the day, and most tiresome to 
cook, and serve in two or three courses? — Fruit, cereals 
with cream and sugar, coffee, meats and potatoes in 
varied style, eggs, toast, doughnuts, griddle cakes, bis- 
cuit, muffins or gems, for this meal must have variety 
and be hot summer or winter. 

How much more time there is for rest, recreation, 
reading, music, which many a busy woman almost for- 
gets ! What does not a few morning hours of freedom 
mean to her! No need of hurry and worry with only 
the dinner to get, which should be good and nutritious, 
and all have had sufficient exercise to insure a good but 
not ravenous appetite. The supper as simple as pos- 
sible unless the dinner must come then and a light lunch 
towards noon. 

Look at the saving in work, — only 365 full meals a 
year instead of 1,095. After becoming fully accus- 
tomed to this plan you will wonder how you ever dis- 
posed of three heavy meals a day. The remark is often 
made that if one only eats two meals or one meal a day 
they must make up three meals in quantity. But that 
is not so if they eat properly, which means with normal 
hunger, and masticate each mouthful as finely as possible. 
With improved nutrition, health and strength increase; 
the obese become thin; the thin put on flesh; the 
wrinkles of age contract on face, neck, and hands, while 



16 THE ART OF LIVING. 

youth again smiles from laughing ej^es that mean young 
old people, although a silver crown adorns their brow. 
A man in the fifteenth century said, ^'One meal a day is 
the life of an angel ; two meals a day is the life of a man ; 
three meals a day is the life of a beast/' A friend re- 
cently wrote me, "I have tried the beastly way so long 
and with such disastrous results, I hope some time to be 
able to live angelically here on earth; for surely, since 
two meals do more for me than three, it may be that one 
will prove better than two.'^ 

One and two meals a day and fasting are as ancient 
as time and have always been in practice. But we with 
our three, five, six meals and between-meal nibbles, are 
away behind the ancients and have lost the power to dis- 
cern real appetite, and only by rest from overeating will 
nature restore to us the exquisite sensation of a normal 
taste. 



THE SCIENCE OF LIVING. 

By Edward Hooker Dewey, M.D.* 

•• Read, not to contradict and refute, and not to believe and take for 
granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider." 

— Bacon. 

The art of living as taught in cookbooks is the art of 
enticing food without hunger; and this means, for all 
who indulge from mere taste relish, the culture of dis- 
ease, a slow dying along the ways of unrecognized suicide. 
Some simple facts about the brain and its power will 
make this clearly evident. That it is the source of all 
the energies of the body as manifest in the power to 
move, think, love, admire, hate, is not a question. That 
it never loses weight by sickness nor even when death 
occurs from starvation, through its power to absorb the 
body as a store of predigested food; that its tired-out 
powers are restored by rest and sleep and not by food, 
hence a self- feeding, self-charging dynamo, is newly dis- 
covered physiology. 

It stands in relation to the stomach and other organs 
as the dynamo to the machine. As a machine the stom- 
ach is the most severely overtaxed organ of the body and 
therefore the most wasteful in its demands upon the 
brain for energy. That food is a source of strength is 
no more a fact than that the grain in the hopper or the 



♦Author of The No-Breakfast Plan and The Fasting Cure, The True 
Science of Living, A New Era for Women, Chronic Alcoholism. Address, 
Meadville, Pa. 



18 THE ART OF LIVING. 

stones in the crusher are a source of energy. The diges- 
tion of a meal, and the forcing of the resulting rubbish 
through stomach and the many feet of bowels, probably 
cost more brain power than any labor of mind or muscle 
— and power that costs serious loss to all other energies, 
as an overfull meal never fails to demonstrate. 

If food is capable of restoring the tired-out condition, 
the dining room and not the bedroom should be the re- 
sort at bedtime. There is nothing more marvelous in 
all physiology than the self-feeding power of the brain, 
its resting power through sleep. There is enough brain 
food in a body of average weight to require several 
months to merely starve to death. A soldier of the Civil 
War entered the service with a weight of 159 pounds. 
After several months of ulceration of both stomach and 
bowels, he died with a v/eight of 60 pounds, and yet with 
a brain so perfectly nourished that the mind remained 
clear even to the last day of his life. From a history of 
his case it was believed that there was no food digested 
during the last four months of life. The writer had 
a case where the stomach of a child was totally disabled 
by lye water and without ability to take even a teaspoon- 
ful of water. Life with clear mind endured until the 
seventy-fifth day. 

It is nature's plan that there shall be no eating with- 
out hunger, a plan to save disease from the destructive 
complication of indigestion to add to its severity and 
duration. Every case of acute sickness is a case of star- 
vation of the body until hunger or death comes, with en- 
forced food — a physiological crime only less than the 
bloody lancet of a darker age of medicine. It does not 
save the body, it cannot save the brain as it need not. 



THE SCIENCE OF LIVING. 19 

In the light of all this physiology, how are we to so live 
that we may have the clearest vision, the acutest hearing, 
smelling, tasting, feeling, the greatest strength of body, 
of reason and judgment, or only limited by constitu- 
tional powers ? The answer to these questions opens up 
possibilities of the greatest freedom to the slaves of those 
laboratories called kitchens. 

On arising in the morning both body and mind are at 
their normal maximum. With no breakfast to get and 
eat, no time is lost in kitchen and dining room, hence 
there is a forenoon of maximum power for business or 
pleasure, and also a maxim\im of the defensive condi- 
tion against disease culture. Only without breakfast 
can there be the highest powers for pleasure and every 
working energy of head or hands during hours that end 
even at high noon. Even the child and youth may brave 
the coldest mornings with more resisting powers if stom- 
achs are empty, and also get higher marks in every class 
room. 

Several questions now naturally arise: 

1. When shall we eat? 

There is only this short answer: Only when hunger 
comes, whether at noon or in a day, a week, or weeks that 
end in months. Fasting is nature's only means to in- 
cite hunger, and no other means is possible. 

2. W^hat shall we eat? 

This is a matter of geographical lines, with fruits at 
the tropics and blubber at the Frigid zone. In the men- 
tal zone, where mind is of some account, a mixed diet is 
indicated and all needed foods easily available. Hunger 
should make the plainest foods a luxury of relish with- 
out the aid of sugar or other means to entice eating from 



-20 THE ART OF LIVING. 

mere taste relish. All acid fruits decompose the gastric 
juice and they should never be a part of a general meal. 
They are practically worthless because nearly void of 
nourishment. Whether meat shall be used is a question 
of sentiment, expense, and digestion. The fiber is not 
digestible and hence it passes through the stomach as 
rubbish at no little expense of digestion or vital power. 
Its main virtue is in its savory juices, and when these 
are extracted by mastication there is no digestive reason 
why they should not be taken. Bacon is the butter of the 
common people throughout all the South. It was the 
butter of the northern soldier, whereby he added diges- 
tive relish to all of his meals, and thus he was enabled to 
maintain his body on hard favored rations. 

At the close of the long fasts of acute sickness, N ature 
never objects to the odors of the frying pan or the oven ; 
she never calls for nuts, fruits, nor any of those raw 
foods whose palatability and digestibility are increased 
by cooking. 

3. How shall we eat ? 

This is a matter of physical and chemical solution. 
That digestion is more rapid and at less expense of power 
when food is reduced to atoms by mastication is not a 
question for argument. To fill the demands of chem- 
ical solution can take scarcely less than an hour in mas- 
tication. That much time spent at a meal, if the social 
spirit is high, is a resting process to all the wearied en- 
ergies. 

4. How much shall we eat ? 

The hay of the horse seems to be all rubbish. The 
flour that his ration of oats contains could easily be taken 
at one sitting by some strenuous eaters. Is it possible 



THE SCIENCE OF LIVING. 31 

that all his mighty power comes from his food, that 
seems mere stubble? 

If all the rubbish and the water could be eliminated 
from a meal only a few swallows would remain to meet 
the demands of waste. 

Since food plays no part whatever as a source of en- 
ergy, its actual need is merely to restore the wastes of 
the body, and as this is expensive in its cost of vital 
power, the important matter is not to exceed the need. 
This is to be avoided by that thoroughness of mastica- 
tion that in part will lessen hunger by the time involved 
in such eating. The mealtime hupger will as totally 
disappear without as with food. Mr. Horace Fletcher, 
the author of several popular books, has practiced this 
method of mastication for several years and the result 
has been a regaining of perfect health, and on from about 
a third to a fifth of former average daily food. 

Food in excess is the developing force in all disease, 
and excess, from the first swallow from the mother's 
breast, is the general rule with all who have food in 
plenty and are able to retain what they eat. 

Underweight is always 'a matter of disease or famine. 
Overweight is always a matter of more food than is 
needed to restore waste. The overweighted are water- 
logged. In any case this can be reduced by fasting or 
a cut in the daily food, and this with an increase of 
strength while the reduction goes on. The increase of 
weight of the later years of life is always a matter of food 
out of proportion to physical exercise. 

5. What shall we drink? 

Only water to meet the demands of thirst. Thirst is 
always due to disease, to overexercise, or to the chemical 



22 THE ART OF LIVING. 

heat of food decomposition in the stomach — or of too 
much chemistry at one sitting. Thirst is the only indi- 
cation of the actual need of water in any case, and its 
causes are always to be avoided. Water in the absence of 
thirst is a tax upon the kidneys. It has no power to wash 
out impurities. These are thrown out only by physiolog- 
ical agencies, — a process that water cannot hasten any 
more than rapid breathing the purification that occurs 
in the air cells. It is not in the power of medical concep- 
tion to point out a need of water not expressed by thirst. 

Alcoholics corrode and congest the stomach, thus sub- 
jecting all the juice glands to a strangling pressure ; and 
they have a benumbing effect upon the brain, whereby 
voices of distress that ought to be heard that they may be 
heeded, are silenced. 

Digestive energy ! From whence does it arise ? From 
the soul itself. From this center of power go wires to 
each individual cell of those glands where the chemicals 
of digestion are evolved. Along these wires go the 
highest cheer, to incite the greatest digestive ac- 
tivity, or the agony of despair or the shock of 
bad news, to paralyze. As the mercury responds to 
air conditions, so do the digestive powers to soul 
conditions. The cultivation of cheer, of si wise, sane 
spirit is a physiological, a moral duty with all. Parents 
should possess cheer as digestive energy and provide it 
for their children. It is the motive power of digestion, 
hence each needs it to prolong and enlarge his 
own life and to impart it to otliors. What sunshine, 
warmth, and moisture are to all things that grow in the 
earth, so is a cheerful soul in a home in its power to 
impart life to every member. What clouds, fogs, and 



THE SCIENCE OF LIVING. 33 

chilled airs are to both body and soul, so is a face with 
its clouds and chilly manners. Anger is emotional in- 
sanity, and explosions of wrath congest the brain, put- 
ting all of its delicate structures to a weakening strain, 
and hence lessen all of its functional power. Words of 
wrath explode like shells in the soul, brain, at which 
they are aimed, and with physical as well as mental de- 
struction. 

It is only through the highest attainable health that 
there is the greatest strength and coordination of all the 
powers. With the best of health the moral powers are 
at their maximum, hence all evil tendencies are at their 
minimum. The highest human quality is that which 
recognizes with acute and delicate sense all the rights 
of others. Such are the very salt of the earth. Moral 
conditions and moral energy should be a study in all 
homes as a matter of health energy. 

It is clearly a matter of increase in its life-saving, life- 
prolonging power, this studied care to be cheerful, rea- 
sonable, and thoughtfully just. 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 

"We know nothing that we have not lived as we ought to know it. 
What we have lived lias become a part of our being and is of the soul. 
What we know and have not lived is of the intellect." — Wade. 

While jet in my teens there came to me a new gospel 
of life, that led toward the Art of Living for health and 
longevity. The spirit of reform was a part of my ma- 
ternal inheritance, and the practical application begun 
in early life has woven a spiritual web that has become 
a part of me. To be well and able to reach some of my 
ideals my energies were devoted. In midwinter, 1857, 
I became a patient at the Granite State Health Institute 
kept by Dr. William T. Vail, a graduate of both the Allo- 
pathic and Homeopathic schools of medicine, but he had 
not one bottle of medicine or pellets in his new pharma- 
copoeia. The table was excellent in every way. Two 
meals a day, fruit, cereals, and various kinds of bread 
for breakfast, and meat, vegetables, bread, and a plain 
dessert composed the dinner. Many like myself were 
restricted to bread and fruit or vegetables. No seasoning 
was put in the food, but salt, butter, milk, and sugar 
were always on the table. 

Apples were the principal fruit in those days, except 
that in the pastures, and a few hills of strawberries in 
our garden attracted great attention. Nuts had not been 
thought of as an article of food. In a few months I 
became the doctor's office assistant and to him and his 
charming wife I owe my inspiration to turn my attention 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 25 

to medical practice, although intending to fit myself for 
a teacher; but earing for and teaching the sick has been 
my work. I was connected with that popular house for 
seven years, obtaining my practical education and pre- 
paring for Dr. E. T. Trail's College in New York, from 
which I graduated in 1861. Eeturning to Dr. Vail's as 
physician and matron for a time, I was later sent out as 
a public teacher. My first lecture trip extended over 
seven months, doing pioneer work mostly in the jSTew 
England states. I examined and prescribed for the ail- 
ing, sent many to the Institution and gave from four 
to six lectures every week, always commencing on Sun- 
day evening in the most popular church in town. This 
drew a crowded house, as women lecturers were a curi- 
osity, and for the first time the people listened to a ser- 
mon on "Health in its Moral and Eeligious Bearings.'' 
At succeeding lectures, after speaking for an hour, I was 
often detained another hour answering questions about 
the new gospel of life in its varied phases. 

During my second lecture trip Dr. Trail summoned 
me to New York to the position of physician in the then 
famous Institute at 15 Laight street, with which the 
college was also connected, and the house was for many 
years the headquarters for reformers of every name. A 
little later Dr. Trail went West, and the firm changed 
to Miller, Wood & Holbrook. The house was well man- 
aged and stood for progression toward health in every- 
thing promising relief for the sick. I have from the 
first discarded cumbrous methods of treatment as soon 
as something better appealed to me. With three other 
sanitariums I have been associated, one in St. Paul, 
Minn., my own. There we opened the first baths and 



26 THE ART or LIVING. 

treatment without drugs in that city. We had Electric 
and Russian baths, Swedish movements, and the Lift- 
ing-cure. Our methods became popular and our pa- 
trons were among the best in the city. At this time 
I was developing a system of what is now known 
as massage, from the passive exercises of the Swedish 
movements, and this has been my chief reliance in treat- 
ing the sick for the last twenty-five years, although it 
began more than thirty years ago. Physicians were then 
very aggressive towards it, and did a great amount of 
talking when their old chronic stand-bys began to get 
well as soon as taught how to live, and a month or six 
weeks was in most cases the extent of treatment. There 
was no difficulty in showing them that our mode of 
dress, breathing, eating, and drinking had more to do 
with the contagion of health and disease than all else, 
and that the matter was entirely in their own hands, and 
as soon as they could learn the way they would not re- 
quire massage or any other treatment, except to be 
humane to themselves. 

Since leaving sanitarium work my methods have been 
peculiar to m3^self, and v/ithout exception begun in 
places where no one had preceded me, although later 
others have followed working on similar lines. My lec- 
tures have been mostly in church parlors, one a week, to 
women on any subject they desired ; and I would remain 
in a place until my work was done, from two months to 
a year or more, treating my patients in their homes. In 
this way my teachings have been adapted to the different 
families I have met. I have closely observed or tested 
every phase of tlie dietetic problem, as that has seemed 
to be the most prominent point in tlie Art of Living. It 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 37 

has not been possible nor practical for me to be a vege- 
tarian during all these years, neither has it been practi- 
cal for all my patients to adopt my special dietetic ways. 
Where things cannot be done without great friction, one 
must do the best one can, and, as thought broadens, no 
one can fail to see even this question of food in a broader 
light. Heavy treatment and gross heavy living are 
subsiding, and it is not necessary to abuse the human 
temple with excessive work to restore it to health, neither 
to do penance to keep it in health. We cannot induce the 
world to adopt certain ideals at once, and even we must 
do the best we can in whatever environments we may 
be placed. 

A few months ago a patient wrote me, "How could 
YOU advise me to eat meat when I have not been using 
it for some time? Had you prescribed bread and fruit 
or nuts, or some infant or invalid food, I should not have 
been surprised.'*' However, the change of diet from 
stuffing with "healthy food'' that was not assimilated, 
proved an immediate change for the better. Not long 
since in discussing this matter, I remarked that perhaps 
it was "not so much the meat we ate as some other 
things.'' "Then you have gone over to the meat eaters." 
"Yes, in this way; that when I find one who has been 
dieting for j^ears, or a vegetarian, and failed to get well 
even in a sanitarium, I have thought it best to make a 
decided change of food, and have met several such cases 
starving on what they thought the best of food, and they 
have begun to recover as soon as the change was made. 
And this is just as reasonable, scientific, and physio- 
logical as when one makes a change from meat to no 
meat and begins to improve, as thousands have done. 



28 THE ART OF LIVING. 

The more closely I study into the disabilities of 
the semi-invalid world and consider how much has 
been and still is being done for them, involving 
not only financial expense, but expense of vitality 
in taking medicine or in having treatment applied 
to them by themselves or by some one else, I am 
led to ask, is all this hard work necessary? Of 
course there is a class of eases to whom this does not 
apply. Everything advertised as a "sure cure" for the 
sick is a reminder that they need that very thing, as 
their symptoms are exactly like those described in the 
enticing storied "ad.'' Gymnastics and physical culture 
are well enough, for one needs a well developed body, but 
of late there seems to be almost a mania for muscle at 
the expense of brain. However, after abundant doing 
in various ways there has now come sleep and rest to 
the weary body and soul that Nature may have a chance 
to assert herself until she is able to repair her own 
machinery. 

I have never realized this part of the Art of Living as 
during the past few years, since doing less for the sick 
and advising more rest for brain and body. As my 
patients have requested me to devote one chapter in this 
book for the guidance of half-sick humanity I have scat- 
tered all through its pages helpful words for all, and 
they may with safety be applied to them; and here I 
cannot refrain from quoting a few lines from the pen 
of an invalid whom I have never met except on paper. 

'^Xever can I thank you enough for the sweet gospel 
of rest you prescribed for me ; all the others had given me 
so much to do, it was a weariness to my poor worn-out 
body. With nothing to do but rest, the sick look they 



PERSONAL EXrERIENCE. 29 

tell me has gone out of my face. From three meals a 
day, I now take but a midday meal, and a little fruit for 
my supper, and my stomach rarely troubles me/' 

The experience with patients under my personal care 
for the j^ast three 5^ears has been a revelation to them as 
well as to myself. x\lways progressing from one thing 
to another that promised relief for the sick with the least 
expense and the most rapid results, I adopted the no- 
breakfast plan for myself. It has been a rule of mine 
to experiment upon myself first and know what I was 
talking about when recommending it to others. Those 
who were in haste to recover, were quite willing to try 
the new method, and the majority of them said they had 
no appetite for breakfast but ate because it was before 
them. In the new method they found themselves able 
to do the honors of the breakfast table, and by sipping a 
cup of warm drink the ordeal passed with little comment 
from the family and much comfort to themselves. They 
drank water plain, or flavored with fruit juice, hot or 
cold as thirst demanded, during the forenoon or until 
hungry, then a substantial meal was eaten, Avithout re- 
striction except in cereals, milk, and sweets. If feeble 
they rested, otherwise were better able to attend to their 
domestic duties than with a breakfast. In less than a 
week some of them surprised themselves by working all 
the forenoon, which they had not been able to do for 
months with such vigor and ease. Eecently I advise 
more thorough mastication, an hour at dinner if pos- 
sible and a very light supper if hunger demands it. The 
dinner is so much more thoroughly assimilated, hunger 
is a less frequent condition. As to my own ability to 
work without breakfast, I was never more capable nor 



30 THE ART OF LIVING. 

more successful than during the past three years; noth- 
ing is more enjoyable than plenty of business and the 
feeling of weariness is never worthy of notice. But my 
energies are conserved by rest — perfect rest in bed a half 
day or more now and then — and forgetting to dine oc- 
casionally; a good thing if every woman would adopt 
this method for rest, or an hour or two of rest every day,, 
and "at home" to no one during those hours. 

The past year my time has been almost entirely de- 
voted to literary work, and one meal a day at noon and 
that less in quantity, is sufficient for my needs, but with 
more active labor a light supper is taken. The one meal 
might be better later in the day, but not as convenient. 
How delightful to hear people say, "You are growing 
young," instead of "We are all getting old and you with 
the rest of us, and it 's about time for wrinkles and gra}^ 
hair." Consult the material calendar less and the spir- 
itual calendar more. Live less in yesterday's world and 
more in to-day's world, getting every possible enjoyment 
out of it. There is youth and beauty for us with silver- 
ing locks, if we begin even now to cultivate it by the Art 
of Living for self's sake as well as for others, and it is 
not too late to do some of the best work of our lives. The 
corpulent may easily reduce their adipose, reach the 
model of younger years, increase their length of 
days, and develop into the mental and spiritual 
beauty and glory that rightfully belong to the silver- 
crowned. Let us step out from "growing old grace- 
fully," and grow young, by being friendly in association 
with youth, in their work, their education ; keep in touch 
with cheer and hope and all the "new thought" in the 
air, never losing hold of any part of progress, neither 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 31 

getting set in a mental nor physical quicksand that will 
surely send us into oblivion. 

What more gloriously beautiful than love, beauty, and 
youth clothed in the garments of experience that has led 
to victorious achievement over conditions that seemed 
almost insurmountable ! Experience is an expensive 
teacher, but so valuable we would not set one lesson aside, 
nor hasten too rapidly over the future ways. Upon all 
who read this book let me impress the need for rest, and 
the unnecessary waste of life by excessive work, mental, 
social, or physical. Say not that you have lived long 
enough and you are not wanted, that your associates are 
gone, and that you are like a lone tree in a desert waste. 
Keep in touch with the world and with your own higher 
self ; live a grandly beautiful life that is full of possibili- 
ties for you, — then none can say, "She was such a help- 
less burden," but, rather, "She was an angel in human 
guise, so gracious and helpful until the last moment of 
life." 



VARIETY IN FOOD. 

"My appetite is ao poor and nothing tastes good." — The wail of 
thousands. 

Writers and teachers on diet and cookery tell ns that 
man is such a complex animal he needs great variety in 
his food. But is this really a scientific reason? Is it 
not rather because he has educated himself so far away 
from the real man with normal tastes, that he has for- 
gotten what real hunger is, but is only aware of appetite 
that constantly demands something new ? Other animals 
adhere to their own natural food if left to themselves, but 
when unnaturally fed they deteriorate in health and fail 
to reach their limit of life. But man, because he can, 
continually caters to himself in this direction, and the 
supply of new things often precedes the demand for 
them. Nothing escapes or is beneath his notice that can 
possibly be made up into some tasty dish for his eating, 
and the ultimate benefit derived from these things does 
not accrue to the consumer but to the caterer, the doctor, 
and the undertaker. Nature is a perfect chemist. And 
when we find some ill-tasting or tasteless article and are 
obliged to dose, season, pickle or in some way doctor it 
to make it eatable, what is it ? Surely the original would 
not be recognized by its relatives. From an article be- 
fore me written by Addison in 1711 I quote the follow- 
ing : "The apothecary is perpetually employed in counter- 
mining the cook and the vintner. • It is said of Diogenes 
that, meeting a young man who was going to a feast, he 



VARIETY IN FOOD. 33 

took him up in the street and carried him home to his 
friends, as one who was running into imminent danger 
had not he prevented him. What would that philosopher 
have said had he been present at the gluttony of a mod- 
ern meal? Would not he have thought the master of a 
family mad, and have begged his servants to tie down 
his hands, had he seen him devour fowl, fish, and flesh, 
swallow oil and vinegar, wines and spices, throw down 
salads of twenty different herbs, sauces of a hundred 
different ingredients, confections and fruits of number- 
less sweets and flavors? What unnatural motions and 
counter ferments must such a medley of intemperance 
produce in the body ! For my part, when I behold a 
fashionable table set out in all its magnificence I fancy 
that I see gouts and dropsies, fevers and lethargies, with 
other innumerable distempers lying in ambuscade among 
the dishes. Nature delights in the most plain and simple 
diet. Ever}'^ animal but man keeps to one dish. Man 
falls upon everything that comes in his way; not the 
smallest fruit or excrescence of the earth, scarce a berry 
or a mushroom, can escape him." 

The trouble is we are creatures of habit, devotees of 
custom, and seem to have no time for the exercise of 
reason in this matter, hence eat and take the conse- 
quences as if gratification of taste was the one thing to 
be desired. 

Civilization has brought to us much that it would be 
wise to civilize into scientific simplicity, until we reach 
the point where we can partake of any sort of nutritious 
food prepared in the simplest manner, season it with a 
grateful heart, and with no other thought than that it 
is good and just what the system requires. To get. fussy 



34 THE ART OF LIVING. 

and to be all the time thinking about food, and "My ap- 
petite is so poor/' "I don't relish one thing I do eat," 
"Everything hurts me," or "I can't eat this or that. 
What shall I do ? I must eat something," is the bane of 
many a life and the despair of wife, mother, or cook, 
who in vain do their best to prepare something to meet 
the demand. When one gets to the point of "no appe- 
tite" wait as other animals do until hungry, then what 
hunger calls for will be relished and do its work prop- 
erly. When there is no hunger, don't work against na- 
ture "to get up an appetite" or try to coax it to appear 
by fixing up nice( ?) dainty dishes, and then taxing your 
weary brain and hands in dressing the invalid's tray with 
ribbons and bows and other elegancies to adorn those 
eatables that are entirely uncalled for and can be only 
an injury to one devoid of hunger. But this is custom 
and unwisdom, and may we not hope that the light of 
wisdom will reverse custom in these directions? 

We may live on a few things even continuously if we 
desire and there are those who live on nuts and fruits 
exclusively. The scientists have recently for the first 
time investigated the dietary habits of these people in 
California. They had been fruitarians from five to 
seven years. They ate twice a day, the first meal con- 
sisting of nuts and fruits of various kinds ; for the second 
they usually ate no nuts but substituted olive oil and 
honey, the product of flowers and fruit. They do not 
mix their foods, neither dilute their nuts and evaporated 
fruits. The fresh fruits, which were used in abundance, 
were the largest item of expense. The average daily cost 
throughout the year is about twenty-five cents each. 
There is no cooking and but little refuse. The scientific 



VARIETY IN FOOD. 35 

report, however, is that "The diet is deficient in protein 
and fuel value and yet the children seemed healthy and 
active, although under normal size. Comparing the re- 
sults with commonly accepted standards, all the subjects 
were decidedly under nourished." Although living upon 
this Edenic food in its natural state is rather expensive 
in some ways, and the kitchen problem easily solved, yet 
we cannot think this method would result in the highest 
development of the race. We have yet to learn whether 
superior brain or any other superior power would be de- 
veloped in man upon fruits and nuts alone. 

The next step in simplicity is in bread and fruit, to 
which nuts may be added if desired. This method has 
been adopted by large numbers and seems to fulfill every 
requirement in the human economy. One of the most 
able and scientific works upon this subject is "Fruit and 
Bread," by Gustav Schlickeysen, translated by M. L. 
Holbrook, M. D. This book will be of great interest to 
those investigating along these lines. In it we find cook- 
ing reduced to bread making of the plainest kind and 
fruits used in their ripe, uncooked state, devoid of mix- 
tures. 

Bread, meat, and potatoes are staple articles of food 
and would sustain anyone, no matter what his work 
might be, in health and ability in all directions. When 
we add to these other vegetables that we desire we have 
simplicity in a mixed diet that is ample to satisfy every 
need of the human temple. If we steam cook our food, 
the labor of cooking is much reduced, and becomes pleas- 
ure instead of wearisome toil, and food so cooked does- 
not require manipulation in any other way to make it 
acceptable. If fruits are added they, in their complete 



36 THE AKT OF LIVING. 

perfection, require no further preparation. Why, then, 
do we need such a multitude of made dishes that involve 
more time and expense than all else? Why not make 
an effort to educate ourselves away from them and so 
lighten the burdens we have imposed unwittingly upon 
ourselves? Should we discard all animal foods, there 
need be no other changes made to give us the perfection 
of health, strength, and ability in any labor, mental or 
physical. Nuts may be used if desired, but wheat, oats, 
and corn will furnish every element lacking in the disuse 
of meat. 

There is abundant variety in all necessary foods, and 
it is a mistaken idea that there is hard work and ex- 
pense involved in a change of diet from complexity to 
simplicity, from health-destroying to health-inducing 
foods. Take the ordinary table, leave the substantials, 
and cast out the sharp sauces and pickles. If an excess 
of seasoning is used reduce it from day to day. Tea and 
coffee are properly medicines and not necessary. Cut 
down the rich desserts, using less eggs, sugar, and spices 
in them, and taste will change so that good bread and 
fruit will be quite as acceptable as the enticing sweets. 
Expensive substitutes are not necessary; there is abun- 
dant variety in all nature's products, and nutritious food, 
whatever it may be, in its preparation and the time and 
manner of taking it is involved the entire subject of 
dietetic nutrition, that means perfect health. 



WHO ARE VEGETARIANS, AND WHAT 
IS A HYGIENIC DIET? 

" True taste is a great economist. She confines her choice to a few 
objects and delights in producing great effects by small means; while 
false taste is forever sighing after the new and rare." 

There are so many phases to this question, and so 
many thousands claiming to be vegetarians by forsaking 
the "fleshpots/' that the question arises, What is a vege- 
tarian? The ready reply is, "One who eats no meat." 
If by meat is meant flesh foods merely, then it were more 
consistent to call such people "non-flesh eaters" instead 
of vegetarians, as the name is very misleading. 

There are four classes of earth productions, — grains, 
vegetables, fruits, and nuts. There are two classes of 
people, the meat eaters and the non-meat eaters. Of 
this latter class there are several divisions. Those who 
live on nuts and fruits are called fruitarians. Large 
numbers live on bread and fruit, many of them includ- 
ing nuts; to these, others add vegetables, cereals, and 
vegetable oils, and these constitute the true vegetarians, 
living entirely upon the vegetable productions of the 
earth. 

There are many thousands who abstain from meat and 
use freely all animal products; others use made dishes 
containing animal products ; and a large class who eat no 
meat use animal products very freely, and fish is also 
included in their bill of fare, — and all class themselves as 
vegetarians. Of late there has been much discussion on 
the subject of fish-eating vegetarians. A few years ago 



38 THE ART OF LIVING. 

the author met a woman who said she was a vegetarian, 
and added that she "had fish for dinner." "A vegeta- 
rian and eat fish." "Yes, I eat plenty of it. Fish is 
not meat !" I began to investigate and found others 
who had no scruples about eating fish. "But why do 
you eat fish? Tliey have to be killed." "Because they 
are different, and it does not seem so bad to kill the cold- 
blooded fish as the warm-blooded animals, which seem 
so nearly related to us." "This may be true, but I fail 
to see this fine distinction and cannot understand such 
altruism. Is it science or sentiment that controls this 
matter of slaying for food ?" "Both doubtless have their 
share in this vexed question, but there is a difference, 
and, when we come down to the right and Justice of the 
matter, is eating fish any worse than using animal prod- 
ucts? And you know nearly all the vegetarians use 
those; indeed, feel that they could not get along well 
without them." "Then let us announce ourselves just 
what we are — non-flesh eaters. We boast that no animal 
need be slain that we may be fed, that seeming to be the 
main point. But thousands of young are robbed of their 
natural food and slain that we may have milk. We do 
not kill the hen that we may have eggs, yet we rob her 
nest and eat the undeveloped chickens. The one, as you 
see, a ^milk machine,' the other an 'egg producing ma- 
chine,' so it is no great sacrifice to give up flesh eating 
when we partake abundantly of these concentrated nutri- 
ents, fish included." "I believe you are right, but I 
never had the subject presented to me in this way, and 
am sure I could not be a strict vegetarian." 

The Japanese are often quoted as a hardy, long-lived 
race of vegetarians, but they consume large quantities 



WHO ARE VEGETARIANS ? 39 

of fish, also meat to some extent, if they can afford it. 
But the cow and the ox, the helpers in their labor, they 
regard with affection, and would not eat of their flesh. 

The Chinese are called a nation of rice-eaters; fish 
and meat are used by them as freely as by the Americans, 
and pork is their staple animal food. Their strength 
and endurance is proverbial. 

The strict vegetarian excludes from his diet every 
creature having sentient life and ever}^ animal product, 
and no others are really entitled to the name. The aspect 
of vegetarianism, then, becomes changed, and a more 
serious matter than merely abstinence from meat, and 
few comparatively adopt this practice ; neither, as a rule, 
would it be wise to do so except by slow degrees. There 
are many fine points involved in dietetics as taught to- 
day ; all have their merits and their adherents, and doubt- 
less if any one of us were confronted with the problem 
of life or death due to a lack of our accustomed food, 
we would hardly deem it wise to perish by starvation 
rather than partake of other food within our reach. 

Experience is teaching us that an excess of meat is 
not essential to health and strength. More than half 
the world live without it ; some because their religion for- 
bids animal slaughter, others because they cannot afford 
it even as a luxury more than once a year. They endure 
the most severe physical labor, and many live beyond a 
century, but they live very plainly because they must, 
and many of them live almost entirely on bread. 

The ancient sages and philosophers, so often quoted 
as non-flesh eaters living beyond a century, were also 
abstemious in their dietetic habits. An eminent writer 
more than a century ago said of them, "If we consider 



40 THE ART OF LIVING. 

these ancient sages, a great part oS.^ wh.ose philosophy 
consisted in a temperate and abstemious' course o"f life, 
one would think the life of a philosopher and the life of 
a man were of two different dates." We know that a 
large proportion of those who live on a mixed diet, in- 
cluding more or less animal food, perform the most severe 
mental and physical labor and hundreds of them also 
live beyond a century, and that their achievements have 
been valuable to the world none can dispute. It is also a 
notable fact that those who reach great heights live 
temperate lives, and a plain diet is the foundation stone, 
not merely that which is known as "healthy food." Food 
of any kind is not good for a person unless the system 
makes good use of it. And here is where so many people 
become stranded on dietetic rocks, because they do not 
know how, when, or what to eat. We find to-day on the 
tables discarding meat, substitutes fully equal in the 
concentration of mysterious compounds to those found 
in conventional cookbooks. There are turkeys, ducks, 
roasts, chops, steaks, cutlets, and other dishes bearing the 
name of meats, and edibles with foreign names that 
quite bewilder a plain American, and all composed of 
various spiced and prepared articles, that cannot serve 
the normal use in the human economy. The thing to 
guard against in good cookery is combinations and con- 
centrations of mixtures that some dietists deem indispen- 
sable or think must be provided to avert the supposed 
odium attaching to hygienic or vegetarian living and to 
increase their numbers by enticing culinary products. So 
far as health is concerned the real article of meat, prop- 
erly cooked, would be preferable to many of these substi- 
tutes, and many others view this branch of the subject 



WHO ARE VEGETARIANS? 41 

in the same light. Many who discard meat, eat of other 
foods, including milk, cheese, beans, peas, nuts, and eggs 
to excess, and in this way they prove more detrimental 
than a moderate use of meat. 

Nutritious articles of food, well cooked, but few at a 
meal and those well selected, constitute a hygienic die- 
tary. We should select the best, not necessarily the most 
expensive, foods and use them prudently. From all the 
wisdom that is placed before us we can only glean the 
truth from experience. One cannot make a code of 
dietetic rules that will be adapted to every one, and when 
we reach a certain point and say this is the end, we place 
a barrier to progress in that line. 

The way is open to all, and those who desire to make 
the most of life in every direction will observe the sim- 
plicity in Nature and take their lesson from her. She 
will continue to yield her bounty in every clime so long 
as the necessities of life demand it. 

We should be sure that science is the foundation of our 
theories, and never ignore the evidence of experience and 
common sense no matter how seriously it may conflict 
with our preconceived ideas and habits. Horace Mann 
has written, "Do not think of knocking out another man's 
brains because he differs from you. It would be as ra- 
tional to knock yourself on the head because you differ 
from yourself ten years ago." 

Truth is the one mighty force to which we must yield. 
She alone commands first our attention, then our accept- 
ance. It is the one thing in the line of progress that 
humanity is seeking, and we cannot afford to evade or 
set it aside. Even with the burden of ancestral habits, 
customs, and crudities, through a multitude of experi- 



42 THE ART OF LIVING. 

inents, opinions, and theories, we have developed to 
greater refinements, destructive in many ways though 
they be. But possibly ere the present century closes we 
may be living in the golden age, when 

" Heaven's attribute was universal care, 
And man's prerogative to rule but spare." 

This seems the ideal code of dietetics in its highest al- 
truism, reached as yet by a minority of the race. 



SUN-COOKED OR RAW FOOD. 

It is an old Spanish proverb that «' The Lord has sent into this world 
a great variety and abundance of delicious food to gratify the palate and 
to minister to the wants of all mankind, while the devil, ever intent upon 
mischief, has sent along a lot of ignorant, miserable cooks to spoil it all." 

Upon the cook devolves the responsibility of feeding 
the world — the earth cook, the sun cook, and the kitchen 
cook. The earth cook is not qnite as satisfactory as the 
sun cook. There are those who tell us we should eat our 
food as it grows, after the fashion of other animals, with- 
out manipulation by the kitchen cooks. The superiority 
of an exclusive raw food diet is as yet a matter of experi- 
ment, although the claims made by its advocates are very 
great. We can afford to wait for results while the ques- 
tion to cook or not to cook nature's products is on trial ; 
at the same time, every one who gives a moment's 
thought to the subject will admit that our cooking cus- 
toms are excessive. 

But the raw diet or sun-cooked food is nothing new, 
and the seemingly new things coming up or into view, 
almost bewildering in their rapidity, are really about as 
ancient as Father Time and his scythe "that cuts down 
all, both great and small." We cannot even find a new 
hygienic law— they were "in the beginning" and in op- 
eration as long ago as we have any record. The priest 
in his robes was also the physician and prescribed some- 
thing to do instead of something to take. To do was to 
obey the laws of the body ; live temperately in every way, 
keep the temple clean with pure food, air, and water. 



44 THE ART OF LIVING. 

After a time the people, because of disobedience, were 
too severe a tax upon the priest, and it became necessar}^ 
for him to delegate the office of physical healer to others. 
The cook also appeared at a remote date with methods 
of rendering raw food more palatable, and from then 
until now we have been led on with the growth of ages 
so firmly fixed that when a few do step out a great cry 
is raised against their one-sided notions. But we must 
wait for developments, and there never yet has been a 
step taken in any seemingly new direction, no matter 
how absurd or impossible it may have appeared to the 
majority, that has not had a mission for good. Primi- 
tive man ate sun-cooked food, either as it grew or dried 
it in the sun-heated oven. When fire was utilized for 
broiling and roasting, his primitive oven was a bed of 
hot ashes. Through the ages invention has progressed^ 
and now electricity has been impressed into our service, 
and with the neat electrical range one has only to turn 
a switch or press a button, — the fire is ready and the 
maid or wife may cook and serve a dinner without dis- 
comfort or weariness. Having reached the climax of 
ease in the preparation of food we are now confronted 
with the sun-cooked food problem, which, if adopted, may 
endow us with unlimited vitality that will resist the ac- 
tion and friction of time itself ! 

Something has caused the decrease in human life, for 
there was a time when men lived upon a cooked mixed 
diet, not only one century but more than one. We cook 
our food to render it more palatable and more digestible. 
We know that cooking destroys the living germ, and that 
food cooked or ripened in the sun is filled with electrical 
vitality; that it is full of rich juices of various flavors 



SUN-OOOKED OR RAW FOOD. 45 

and quality. Upon investigation of this question we 
find that the main argument in favor of a raw food or 
sun-cooked diet is that, as cooking destroys the life prin- 
ciple, it is impossible to make as pure and enduring tissue 
from cooked as from uncooked food, which its advocates 
call dead or devitalized food; hence, there should be no 
chemical change in food through the addition of artifi- 
cial heat by cooking. They also claim that raw food is 
more easily assimilated, more nourishing, and possesses 
better staying qualities than cooked food. Other argu- 
ments are used, but some of them are too vague and 
crippled to merit a moment's consideration. We already 
cat much raw food. Fruits, nuts, cabbage, celery, on- 
ions, cucumbers, radishes, cress, parsley, lettuce, and 
even many flowers are eaten ; but Nature must have made 
a mistake, for she has not compounded even these eat- 
ables Just right, and "man has sought out many inven- 
tions'' of a pungent, spicy nature to render them eat- 
able. Eaw peas and turnips, grains in the milk and 
sweet corn uncooked are all palatable. There seems suf- 
ficient in this list to insure the proper supply of salts and 
acids for the construction of healthy tissue. One need 
not be limited, as there is ample supply of sweet, tooth- 
some vegetables and they can be ground if necessary. 
After all, the raw food diet is not so formidable as it 
appears, and with the making of bread, if one could not 
relish grain without cooking, there would be nothing in 
the way of this diet if one chose to adopt it. 

But we must not forget that a great amount of waste 
that is of no use in the system is very far in excess of 
the little that can be assimilated even in the raw food 
diet. We would naturallv infer that a diet of raw food 



46 THE ART OF LIVING. 

meant an Edenic diet, and all one had to do would be 
to pluck and eat of any desirable edible without manipu- 
lation to render it palatable, and we saw at once the 
world approaching the ideal home without a kitchen o-.^ 
a cook ! 

But alas for the emancipation of woman even with 
this diet ! Milk, cream, butter, cheese, and eggs, all un- 
cooked, are freely used by many, and the methods of 
hashing, compounding, and seasoning nature's delicious 
sun-cooked foods into enticing dishes, appear to a hygien- 
ist a grave error. However, with some the diet is lim- 
ited to a few articles taken in the natural state, and 
grains are used in the milk instead of ripe, when they 
are then prepared in various ways into bread with or 
without the admixture of fruits and nuts. Green leaves 
and salads are largely used, onions, radishes, and cucum- 
bers, and some use beans, potatoes, carrots, etc., accord- 
ing to individual selection, as no one is restricted. 

This branch of dietetics merits attention; but so long 
as it is necessary to mix and hash and season their va- 
rious compounds to induce an appetite for them, and 
also take the cow and the hen along with them to perfect 
their products, and make them into rich, concentrated 
combinations, we fail to comprehend the superiority of 
the raw food system over a plain hygienic diet of cooked 
foods, either with or without meat. In all sincerity we 
ask the reader of these pages if it is, as the raw food 
eaters claim, the "cooked, devitalized food" mankind 
has lived upon that has caused such deterioration of the 
race, that has made of them invalids, gluttons, inebriates, 
and criminals. Is it not rather the excess of food de- 
prived of its best qualities by bad cooking, the unright- 



SUN-COOKED OR RAW FOOD. 47 

eous combinations and health-destroying abominations 
of all kinds in and out of home, that the race has used 
in unlimited quantity at all times of day and night? 
There can be but one sensible reply to this question, 
namely, we have made unnatural use of nature's natural 
productions. Self-preservation is the law; self-destruc- 
tion has been the practice! 

When we eliminate the health-destroying articles we 
now use upon our tables, and cease to cater to artificial 
taste, we shall be upon the right track and discover ele- 
ments in our cooked and uncooked food that have been 
completely overshadowed by unwise preparation. We 
are surely tending that way — the way to health, youth, 
and life, such as we have not yet experienced, but which 
when reached will endow us with vital powers sufficient 
to carry even many in these generations a long way into 
their second century. We are infants yet, clothed in 
dietetic errors that develop lives of bodily discomforts, 
to say nothing of dwarfed mental, moral, and spiritual 
life sadly crushed and deficient in its higher mani- 
festations of spirituality and perfect development in 
every direction. 

By the practical renewal of our minds toward the body, 
regarding it as a temple "sacred and holy," — ours to use 
and not abuse, — we can make it a harmonious home for 
the vibrations of melodious music that will fill out the 
measure of our days with inspirational light, love, and 
wisdom. 



ATMOSPHERIC FOOD. 

"Eat Some Air.'"— Eleanor Kirk. 

The above phrase floating into space from an inspi- 
rational brain that supplies a powerful pen, is doing a 
much-needed work. But air food is no new thing. We 
were born right into it. The very first thing every new 
baby does is to eat a good ration of air ! The whole race 
has been eating it ever since its first meal, and this 
electrical, invisible food is so essential we cannot live five 
minutes without it. Why, it 's alive, the most very- 
much-alive thing we do eat. "What do you mean?" 
"Just what I say. It 's alive with life, and we can live 
on it days, weeks, and months if need be, but if it 's 
vitiated it 's no longer alive, but poison, and brings death 
instead of life.'" "But how can one live on it ? It can't 
be chewed and swallowed like other food.'" "Well, it 's 
not necessary to send everything into the stomach that 
we thrive upon, and people are beginning to find out a 
good many things for their benefit that are as ancient as 
time itself — plain, simple things that were ^in the be- 
ginning,' and they are '^just as free as air' to everybody 
who will." But there are hosts of people who will not 
have it. They prefer to feed on the poison air of their 
own bodies, in closed sleeping rooms and stuffy living 
rooms, and all other kinds of negative air. It seems 
strange that our scientists have not made a more 
thorough study of atmospheric dietetics. When we stop 
to consider the matter we find there is much in it besides 



ATMOSPHERIC FOOD. 49 

plain air, and that the elements composing it change 
with our environments. Air is the most thoroughly alive 
thing we consume except water. With every breath we 
inhale we take in millions of microbe life, perfectly 
harmless if taken into a healthy body, otherwise we 
"catch" all sorts of diseases by eating air. Then, again, 
air is laden with odors from everything and everybody, 
and this means much to us all. Many are refreshed by 
the odors of food, and cooks are often small eaters, the 
reason given being that they handle so much food, yet 
they are as well as those who eat three times as much. 

Go out on a fine summer day, arouse the soul sense 
into activity, and appropriate that which you never see 
with material sense, — the odors from earth, grass, and 
clover at your feet, and the fresh upturned soil exhales 
an unseen substance for you. The beds of bloom close 
at hand, the graceful vibrations of every leaf and twig, 
mean life for you. Walk into the forest and every step 
you take upon that marvelous living carpet of nature's 
own weaving brings to you something, ethereal though 
it be. The pine, the spruce, chestnut, balsam, maple 
and oak, are every moment vibrating their delicate 
substance to you and there is life in abundance in 
such aroma. Eat all you can for one day, now and then, 
for this feast is nature's own and worth testing. "The 
proof of the pudding is in the eating." The proof of 
the air is in the breathing. Yes, "eat some air," quan- 
tities of the best you can get. Don't be stingy with it. 
It is costless, yet priceless; laden with daintiest substance 
^'ready for immediate absorption" — odors, flavors, and 
essences from earth, grasses, flowers, fruits, and trees. 



50 THE ART OF LIVING. 

each and all radiant with life, yielding with every breath 
that which helps to sustain your life. 

The world is full of health seekers, being sent by the 
doctors to high and low altitudes, to the lakes, forests, 
and changes of clime and scene north, east, south, and 
west and across the seas, ever restlessly vibrating to this, 
that, and the other, never dreaming that health lies 
within and the without to develop it is near at hand if 
only they were wise enough to utilize it, and change their 
minds from the contagion of unhealth to the contagion 
of health. Oh, how stupid "we mortals be," and how 
reckless of time, comfort, and money to find "lost 
health" ! Stop and think about it and "eat some air," 
good air, and take a rest from the continual exhausting 
search after that which lies at your own door. Wherever 
one may be, air food is free. From palatial surround- 
ings with not a penny in your pocket you may "eat some 
air" and be thankful that you know how to appropriate 
that which others provide. 

Go into any place of business activity, no matter how 
depressed you may be, and the air so full of business 
life uplifts you, and you go out full of hope and strength. 
At the church, concert, convention, theater, lecture, — a 
different air is found in each place, and we each and 
all find ourselves vibrating toward the quality of air 
food that hunger demands. 

In the hospital, the asylum, the prison, is found air 
food laden with misery, wretchedness, and agony. Where 
there is mirth, health, happiness, the very walls exhale 
joy and life. In such a home when the door opens the 
air is fragrant with welcome, although you may be a 
stranger. You step within and even the chairs invite 



ATMOSPHERIC FOOD. 51 

you to rest and "eat some air/" and such air, with only 
a crust, is far more delicious food than that found at 
the most sumptuous table set in a frigid air of conven- 
tionality. 

Even the people we daily meet upon the street or asso- 
ciate with in or out of home exhale an air of hurry or 
worry, of business or pleasure, of envy, hate, jealousy or 
love, of health or illness; and so each and all radiate 
from themselves the air that shall help or hinder the 
work of the world. There are people who almost con- 
sume others, body and soul. The solution is found in 
the air they emanate, tasteless, odorless, maybe, but food, 
whether good or not, and there is a great difference in 
people. This may be easily proven by noting the after 
effects of a call from our friends. The one leaves us 
full of life and joy, the other weak, depressed, and 
wretched. No one better understands this than the 
physician who wisely selects a nurse for his patients. 
As for himself he is so permeated with good air from hat 
to boots that his patients thrive upon it hours after his 
departure. In the home, the schoolroom, any and every- 
where, too much good, alive air cannot be consumed. 

But this is not all. Air is alive with invisible substance 
that sustains the life of some plants, and even the trees 
and plants standing in the earth derive little nutriment 
from the soil, but far more from the air and sun. The 
air is filled with nitrogen, one of the most important 
elements in food; the scientists tell us we should starve 
without it, and are now considering the problem of 
manufacturing nitrogenous products of food directly 
from the air. The air magnetized and electrified by the 
sun's rays, — who can tell how much of life-giving, life- 



52 THE ART OF LIVING. 

sustaining force there is in or may yet be imparted 
directly from the sun to the air which we eat? Then 
eat and enjoy the air upon which the sun shines, and 
you will find the lungs growing larger and stronger, the 
blood purer and richer, and the Art of Living much 
easier to learn and practice. 

Eecent developments are teaching those who are ready 
to learn that it is possible to live well, live better in every 
way, on less than one third the food we have been accus- 
tomed to consume. Very little nutriment is required to 
keep the body in repair, yet what an amount of trash we 
impose upon the human temple every day, and how little 
the benefit derived from it ! — taking it in because it 
tastes good only to cast it out as rubbish too burdensome 
to be used in the human laboratory. 

We are passing through a rapid process of evolution, 
and science will, within a few years, develop more mar- 
velous results in human and domestic economy than now 
seem possible. We are traveling toward mental and 
spiritual supremacy that is leading us into wonderful 
light and life. "I have meat to eat that ye know not of,'* 
is being practically illustrated, and the marvel is why 
we have been so long in getting to the understanding 
of it. 

But out of material grossness many of us have thus 
far come, and our steps are lighter and freer than ever 
before. We arc becoming more individualized, hence 
more of a law unto ourselves, obedient to the unwritten 
law of the "I" within the human temple. 

When we have learned that nature's food products are 
chemically correct, and that if properly cooked they may 
be relished when seasoned with hunger alone, a long 



ATMOSPHERIC FOOD. 53 

step in the right direction has been taken. When we 
live without the animal and his products, without taking 
the life of any sentient creature, a still longer step has 
been taken. 

When we find that a few of nature's nutritious prod- 
ucts will sustain us in health and strength, the kitchen 
problem will be revolutionized. When this point has 
been reached we shall have learned that we subsist on 
much invisible substance, that is being consumed every 
moment, and that air is the most highly organized and 
most valuable of all foods. Indeed it is not unreason- 
able to suppose that as we gradually educate ourselves 
away from grossness in living, and thus approach more 
spiritual conditions, we shall be able to obtain our food 
from the great laboratory of nature with less and less 
care of thinking what we shall have to eat and how we 
shall prepare it. 

"A Utopian dream and quite impossible," you say. 
Wait for the developments of time, and the purification 
of human desires that are now passing through the re- 
finer's crucible of fire. Meanwhile let the banner bear- 
ing the golden words, "Eat Some Air," float over every 
home; echo and re-echo adown the centuries until we- 
have learned its full value as an element in feeding and 
preserving us in the most perfect health, and so redeem 
the race from the exacting servitude of excessive and 
useless cooking and eating. 



THE STAFF OF LIFE. 



Thirty years or more ago white flour was nearly all 
starch; the bran and shorts containing the gluten was 
fed to the pigs and cattle. Most of the bread in those 
days was of inferior quality, raised with very poor yeast, 
milk, or "salt risings," and dough raised until far on 
the road to decay. There is now no reason why we 
should not be the best of bread makers, yet with all the 
improved material the proportion of a poor, negative 
quality of bread is very large. Improved milling meth- 
ods have given us a superior white flour, and the highest 
grade of patent roller process flour contains a large 
amount of the middlings or gluten, which element gives 
to the wheat gram its superiority over all other grains 
for bread making. The lower and cheaper grades of 
flour contain very little gluten and do not go as far in 
feeding a family as the better grades. Those who de- 
pend upon the baker are no better ofl^, and the laboring 
man defrauds himself by thinking what big, puffy loaves 
he gets for ten cents. And he wants them fresh every 
day right from the oven, too, for his family "cannot eat 
bread a day old." 

The intemperance caused by the use of impoverished, 
badly-cooked, low-grade bread is beyond estimate, and 
the pity of it is, men don't know why they hang around 
the saloon, and women don't know why they "brace up" 
on tea, coffee, and wine. But when perfect nutrition 
is supplied to the human temple, the brain will not de- 



THE STAFF OF LIFE. 55 

mand anything further to sustain health, comfort, and 
strength. The best of white flour is known by its 
creamy tint. To test its quality mix a little of it with 
cold water to a stiff dough, then stretch and pull it out; 
if it is elastic, tough, and leathery it contains a good 
proportion of gluten, is nutritious, and will make excel- 
lent bread. If it is not elastic and breaks apart easily 
it is deficient in gluten, and made into bread it becomes 
a very weak "staff of life." It will do for cake and 
pastry, but is nearly all starch and deprived of its best 
elements. 

We should prefer our own homemade bread, and all 
that is necessary to have it is the best of flour, com- 
pressed yeast, water or milk and salt. These materials 
will produce sweet, nutty-flavored bread if well made 
and baked. Poor material will give us diseased bread, 
rough, coarse, vile-smelling, sour loaves so disappoint- 
ing to the maker and the consumer. Bread is much 
sweeter and keeps moist longer when mixed with water 
than when mixed with milk, or milk and water, and good 
bread is good until it is gone even if a week or ten days 
old. Bread is not improved by the addition of sugar or 
shortening, but if one prefers to use it a level teaspoon- 
ful of each to a loaf is sufficient. The cook room should 
be well ventilated, the utensils clean, water freshly 
drawn and heated, and in cold weather warm the pans, 
bowl, molding board, and flour. 

French bread is mixed with water ; Vienna bread with 
equal parts of milk and water, and the Vienna bread 
makers are said to be the best in the world. The crust 
of bread is the sweetest and most easily digested part 
of the loaf, hence loaves should be of medium size. Do 



$6 THE ART OF LIVING. 

not attenn3t to sweeten sour, acrid bread dough with, 
soda. Such dough has advanced too far in the putrefac- 
tive stage and is only fit for the garbage pail. Yet there 
are plenty of cooks who do not know when the dough 
has reached that stage, and always put a little soda in 
the flour when mixing, fearing it may sour. But those 
who through carelessness let the dough spoil, then doctor 
it with soda, which reveals itself in spots and streaks, 
raise and half bake it in biscuits for breakfast, could 
not give their families a more indigestible mass. 

There is no luck about bread making or anything else ; 
failure denotes a lack of something. In yeast bread 
making, the peculiar principle called diastase changes 
the starch to sugar ; the yeasl plant in its growth changes 
sugar to carbonic acid gas and alcohol, both, being vola- 
tile, escape in the baking. The gas by its expansion 
causes the dough to rise. By kneading, it is evenly dis- 
tributed through the dough, so that when driven off in 
the baking, the loaf is fine grained. If the oven is not 
hot enough the loaf will spoil in the oven. It should be 
so hot that the yeast plant may be killed at once; then 
it will be well baked and the crust dextrinized, thus ren- 
dering it the sweetest and most digestible part of the 
loaf. The modern bread maker makes her bread in the 
morning and has it ready for the oven in three and a 
half hours. A still shorter process is by using double 
the quantity of yeast and a higher temperature of the 
mixing liquid and the raising process, and in three 
hours or less bread, biscuit, or rolls may be made and 
baked. This is a great improvement over the old method 
qf raising over night, and having the dough ten or fifteen 
hours in preparation for baking. 



TPIE STAFF OF LIFE. 



57 



To Dr. Sylvester Graham the world is indebted for 
the promulgation of the fact that we were starving on 
bread made of white flour. The original Graham meal 
was made of good wheat including the entire hull, as 
even the woody fiber was considered by him an essential 
element in the promotion of health. Dr. Graham him- 
self would not approve of the spurious article that to- 
day bears his name. This is extensively manufactured 
of an inferior quality of white flour mixed with coarse 
bran, refuse, and dirt. The doctor prescribes "Graham 
bread"; the patient buys the coarse, scratchy flour, sifts 
and disguises it with molasses, salt, butter, and yeast, 
slack bakes and eats it fresh, then wonders why he still 
has dyspepsia ! 

But it is possible to obtain a first-class Graham flour, 
both fine and coarse, that will without sifting make ex- 
cellent bread. This flour is made of the best wheat, 
which is deprived of its outer coat and all the grit it 
contains, and like the best entire wheat flour it may be 
known by the uniform size and perfect mixture of the 
bran. 

FLOUR OF THE ENTIRE WHEAT. 

The Franklin Mills Co., Lockport, N". Y., are the 
original manufacturers of "Flour of the Entire Wheat." 
This brand is always reliable, and bread made from it 
by a good cook is par excellence the bread for the founda- 
tion of a healthy race. The world is full of men and 
women who lack backbone to carry them properly 
through it, and sufficient healthy nerve to enable them 
to resist the temptations that surround them. The bread 
they have eaten has been deficient in the elements neces- 



58 THE ART OF LIVING. 

sary for good bone and nerve, and this alone is respon- 
sible for thousands of human wrecks. The flour of the 
entire wheat is as fine as white flour, and contains all 
there is in wheat except the outer woody fiber, which is 
unfit for the human stomach. The best grades of it may 
be known by the perfect mixture and shade of the flour. 



Part II. 
HEALTH CULTURE COOKING. 



( 

It requires a good brain to cook and serve I 

even simple articles in the best manner. No 

matter how carefully a recipe may have \ 

been put on paper a cook should use her own ] 

judgment and remember that all spoons and j 

cups are not alike, neither is all raising 
material of uniform quality. 



BREAD MAKING. 



White Bread. 

To each pint of lukewarm water or equal parts of 
milk and water, add one half teaspoon salt and one 
half compressed yeast cake that has been dissolved in 
a little tepid water. Stir in sifted flour with a strong 
spoon until stiff enough to turn from the bowl to the 
molding board. Knead well, adding a little flour until 
it ceases to stick to hands or board. Return it to the 
bowl, cover with a thick, clean towel, set in a warm place 
and protect from a draft. In two and a half or three 
hours, maybe less, it will have doubled in size ; then stir 
it down and form with deft handling into small loaves 
and put into warm, oiled, brick-shaped pans; set in a 
warm place and in an hour or less they will be light 
enough to bake. The oven should be hot enough to 
brown a spoonful of flour in two minutes, and should 
be kept at about that temperature until the bread is 
nearly done. If inclined to burn on the top, cover with 
clean brown or asbestos paper. Bake from forty-five 
minutes to one hour, turning on the sides if necessary. 
A loaf, when properly baked, is a deep, rich brown all 
over, and when cut no odor of fermentation, no soft 
center indicating uncooked germs that will destroy the 
loaf in two or three days, are visible to taste or smell. 
When done, remove from the pans and stand uncovered 



62 THE ART OF LIVING. 

in a cool, airy place, and as soon as cold put in box or 
jar, without wrapping, and keep in cool dry place, where 
nothing can give it an unpleasant taste. 

EOLLS. 

Take a piece of the bread dough after the first rising, 
cut it in pieces and form with the hands into rolls an 
inch in diameter and five or six inches long. Lay these 
in a broad pan with space between, and when light bake 
until well done. These rolls may be made into a twist 
b\' laying one over the other and pinching at the ends. 

Entire Wheat Bread. 

See above directions for making yeast bread and rolls 
of white flour. The only difference in raising the en- 
tire wheat is that the dough must not be as stiff as for 
v^hite bread. Do not add even one spoonful of white 
flour to entire wheat if you expect the best of bread, and 
a good bread maker cannot fail to have light, sweet, 
nutty loaves of entire wheat. 

Graham Bread. 

This should be made like other yeast bread, but, as 
the flour is coarser, do not make it as stiff. If well 
stirred it does not require kneading, and many people 
put it in the bread pans when first made and bake it 
as soon as light. Do not let it rise too long, and bake 
an hour or more. Never use molasses in bread, and 
but little if any sugar. 

Buns and Biscuit. 
Take a portion of the bread dough, add sugar and 
shortening to your taste, and a few English currants if 



BREAD MAKING. 63 

you wish. Knead, roll half an inch thick, cut small, 
put in pan, and soon as light bake in a quick oven to a 
rich brown. Yeast bread and biscuit should not be 
eaten until a few hours old. 

Bread Eaised with Baking Powder. 

Use only reliable brands of baking powder. Entire 
wheat, graham or rye flour may be used in place of white 
flour in bread, biscuit, gems, or any food raised with 
baking powder, the only change being a little more or 
less of the mixing liquid. One can use eggs and sugar 
in this kind of bread cooking if they wish, but they are 
not necessary, and when mixed with cold water with a 
little more shortening they are more digestible than 
when mixed with milk. Bread should be bread — a real 
substantial — and not a "melt in the mouth" dainty. 

Baking Powder Biscuit. 

Four level cups sifted flour, four level teaspoons bak- 
ing powder, pinch of salt, three tablespoons liquid short- 
ening (less with milk), about two cups of cold water or 
sweet milk. Mix all the dry ingredients, add the liquid 
and shortening and stir to a smooth dough. Turn 
upon the floured molding board, dust with flour and roll 
an inch thick. Cut with floured cutter; put in shallow 
tin, prick with a fork and bake well in a hot oven. 

Baking Powder Shortcake. 

Mix and make like biscuit; roll half an inch thick 
and bake on shallow tins. 

Soft Biscuit. 

Make as above and drop from spoon on oiled tin and 
bake. This method is less work and biscuit just as nice. 



64 the art of living. 

Baking Powder Gems and Muffins. 

Four level cups of sifted flour, four level teaspoons 
baking powder, one level teaspoon salt, two tablespoons 
liquid shortening, and two cups cold water or sweet 
milk. Mix well the dry ingredients, add the liquid, 
then the shortening, and stir to a smooth dough. It 
must not be too stiff. Drop from spoon into warm 
oiled gem pans and bake in a hot oven. For muffins 
add two tablespoons white sugar. 

Baking Povtder Dumplings. 

Three level cups sifted flour, three level teaspoons 
baking powder, one half teaspoon salt. Mix all well 
together, then add sufficient cold water or sweet milk to 
make a soft biscuit dough. Drop from spoon closely 
together on an oiled plate and set at once in steam 
cooker. Keep the water constantly boiling and steam 
an hour at least. All steamed flour food requires long 
cooking. These may be used with a stew of any kind 
and are sufficient for a large family dinner. Add liquid 
shortening if to be served with fresh or cooked fruit. 

White Corn Cake. 

Two level cups of fine bolted white corn meal, one 
ieup of white flour, one tablespoon white sugar, three 
level teaspoons baking powder, one half teaspoon salt, 
two tablespoons liquid shortening, a little more than two 
cups cold water or sweet milk. Mix all the dry ingre- 
dients together; add the water and shortening and stir 
briskly, beating all the lumps out. Should be thin 



BREAD MAKING. 65 

enough to settle itself easily in the oiled pan, and be 
baked in a hot oven until well done. 

Brown Bread^ Steamed. 

One cup granulated corn meal, one cup rye or best 
graham meal, one tablespoon white sugar, pinch of salt, 
two level teaspoons baking powder, one tablespoon liquid 
shortening, one and one third cups cold water. Mix 
all the dry ingredients together and stir in the liquid 
very thoroughly. The batter should be like thick cake, 
if too stiff add more water. Put in oiled pan and steam 
three hours. When done set in oven fifteen minutes. 
Dried fruits of any kind may be used in this bread. 

Unleavened Bread. 

There is no bread as sweet and wholesome as that 
made with pure soft water, flour or meal, with plenty 
of fresh air beaten or kneaded into it, and the hot air 
of a good oven to bake it. Add to these one who is in- 
terested in it, has plenty of common sense, and failure 
will be turned into success. 

Gems of Entire Wheat Flour. 

Measure three level cups of sifted Franklin Mills 
entire wheat, add two cups of cold water, and a table- 
spoon liquid shortening. Beat and stir very briskly in 
the fresh air two or three minutes until the batter is 
smooth and full of air bubbles. Then add two or three 
tablespoons of cold water and beat again; it should be 
a little thicker than, sponge cake. Put at once in hot 
oiled gem pans and set in a very hot oven. Bake half 



66 THE ART OF LIVING. 

an hour or until done brown all over. When done re- 
move from pans, lay apart on plate to cool fifteen min- 
utes before being eaten. Never cut them open, but pull 
them apart, and, if they are too moist, make them a 
little thicker next time. When just right they are light 
as sponge cake. They may be made with equal parts of 
sweet milk and cold water. 



Gems of Graham Flour. 

Three level cups of fine or coarse graham flour, — only 
the best will do, — two and a half cups of the coldest 
water or equal parts of milk and water. Beat and bake 
in hot pans as other gems. Should be a little thicker 
than entire wheat. 



Northern Beaten Biscuits. 

Four cups best entire wheat flour sifted, two table- 
spoons liquid shortening, one cup and a half or more of 
the coldest water to make a dough stiff enough to handle. 
Stir it well with a spoon, turn out clean from the bowl 
upon the floured molding board, knead, roll out, fold 
and stretch, turning and folding to work into it plenty 
of air ten or fifteen minutes, when it will be smooth and 
springy. Roll it half an inch thick, cut with a very 
small cutter, prick through with a fork twice, put on 
perforated plates or shallow tin with space between, 
and bake in a hot oven. The top grate is best if not 
too hot. They should rise quickly, and turn them so 
as to brown all over. They are very sweet and light. 



bread making. 67 

Southern Beaten Biscuits. 

These are made of white flour as in the preceding 
recipe, using one cup of water or sweet milk and a half 
teaspoon salt. 

Graham Rolls. 

These in their early days — nearly a half century ago- 
— were known as "Dr. Trail's Premium Bread." The 
process of making, manipulating, and baking is similar 
to the Beaten Biscuits (omit the shortening). If the 
dough is too soft the bread will not be light ; if too stiff 
it will be hard and inferior. Roll the dough three 
fourths of an inch thick, cut in strips an inch wide and 
three or four inches long, form them with the hands 
into neat rolls, lay on a shallow baking tin, space be- 
tween each one, prick and bake in a hot oven. Turn 
and brown them on all sides. When Just right they are 
light, crack open, and when done do not yield to pres- 
sure. 

Aerated Crackers and Wafers. 

The dough is made and manipulated in the same 
manner as for Beaten Biscuit and Graham Rolls. For 
crackers cut one fourth inch "thick and cut wafers thin as 
a knife blade, using small cutter. Bake crispy but do 
not burn them, and prick to prevent blistering. 

Diamonds. 

One pint of graham meal or the same of entire wheat 
sifted, and pour over it sufficient boiling water (it must 
be boiling) to make a dough stiff enough to easily 
handle but not too stiff, as the bread will not be light. 



68 THE ART or LIVING. 

Turn at once upon a well floured molding board, knead 
to get it into shape. Roll three fourths of an inch thick, 
cut in strips an inch wide and in small diamonds. Put 
on grate or perforated plates with space between each 
one, set in hot oven and turn them to brown all over. 
When done remove all dry flour adhering to them with a 
clean whisk brush or soft towel. They should be light 
and very sweet. Aerated breads may be cut in any shape 
preferred, — sticks, finger rolls, rings or small balls; the 
smaller biscuit or rolls are the lighter they are. 

Corn Meal Biscuits. 

As a rule, corn meal should be cooked or scalded be- 
fore being made into bread. Pour boiling water upon 
two cups of fine granulated white or yellow corn meal 
and stir to a dough stiff enough to handle. T'urn upon 
a well floured molding board, roll an inch thick, cut in 
small biscuit, and bake in hot oven. 

White Corn Cakes. 

Two level cups white corn meal, one tablespoon sugar, 
one tablespoon shortening, pinch of salt and two or more 
cups boiling water or sweet milk. Stir and beat all 
well together. Bake in shallow tin or on pan in drop 
cakes. 

Hot Mush Rolls. 

Into a pint of boiling hot cooked cereal of any kind 
stir sufficient graham meal or entire wheat to make a 
rather stiff dough. Turn at once upon a well floured 
board, knead very little, cut in any desired shape and 
bake in a quick oven. Left over cereals may be warmed 
and cooked in the above manner. 



bread making. 69 

Corn Meal Dodgers. 
Scald one pint of granulated meal — white or yellow 
— with boiling water to form a dough that can be 
dropped from the spoon. Drop in spoonfuls on an oiled 
griddle or baking tin. Have them one half inch thick 
and bake in oven or cook on the stove, turning when 
brown on one side. Turn two or three times until well 
done. 

Brown Bread. 

Pour boiling water over two cups of coarse granu- 
lated white or yellow corn meal, stir it well, not getting 
it very stiff. After it has cooled add rye or graham 
meal to make a dough stiff enough to knead. Knead 
and put in a thick, brown, deep pan or heavy bread tin 
and set in a moderate oven. It should bake very slowly, 
with a cover over it, until nearly done. This bread 
should be very sweet, and the addition of seeded raisins 
is an improvement. Steam it if you wish. 

Zwieback. 

Cut slices of good bread of any kind (an inferior 
bread will not do), put them on a grate or shallow tin 
in a moderate oven and bake them brown and crispy all 
through. This is twice baked bread, the starch thor- 
oughly cooked. It is the best of toast for any one, and 
moistened with water it is ready for serving with any 
desired dressing. 

Note. — All unleavened bread, especially gems, re- 
quire an oven too hot for other bread. The pans should 
be small, filled full, and dough should rise above the pans 
iu ten minutes. 



CEREALS. 

The use of cereals is becoming more general, but the 
manner in which they are half cooked and swallowed 
without mastication renders them a very objectionable 
article of food. This has doubtless caused the increas- 
ing number of malted or predigested foods on the mar- 
ket. Some of the statements in regard to their superior 
food values are very misleading, and good bread dextri- 
nized in the oven would be as good or better and much 
less expensive. Our grains have been dissected into many 
parts, and predigested, until the oldest grain eater has 
forgotten the taste of genuine wheat, corn, or oats. A 
half century ago we had plain cereals in bulk and they 
seemed to be all sufficient for health. In these more 
modern days the array is truly bewildering, and we pay 
three or four times as much for dissected grains put up 
in fancy packages as for an article in bulk that is just 
as good. But this is not all; we listen to the constant 
a})peals made in this public way to the weak conditions 
of the stomach, brain, and nerves, that we are told 
demand these things. With the wonderful array of 
foods and medicines that constantly remind people they 
are ill and need them, the marvel is that there is suffi- 
cient good nerve and muscle to carry on the work of the 
world. "But you would not discard them?" No, but 
1 would cultivate health in the stomach by discarding 
soft food until we learn that our teeth are for use. I 



CEREALS. 71 



» 



would have people learn what and where health really 
is, instead of living in the mazes of un-health by con- 
stantly catering to "weak digestion/' The human mouth 
and its appendages, tongue, teeth, glands with their 
juices, is a perfect predigesting laboratory. Then why 
not use it instead of closing the door and letting food 
glide into the stomach at railway speed? How little 
we know about the real comfort and ease of predigest- 
ing our food so thoroughly that we never realize we have 
a stomach ! 

Cereals require more time for cooking than is usu- 
ally given on the packages. All coarse cereals, cracked 
and pearled wheat, barley, hominy, oats, and corn re- 
quire from four to eight hours to steam or boil, and 
from four to five or more cups of water to one cup of 
grain, adding boiling water as it cooks away. Serve 
cereals with fruit, honey, maple syrup, or anything you 
wish, but cream should not be used with sugar, and they 
should always be eaten with hard bread or rolls to in- 
sure thorough mastication. 

White Corn Samp. 

This is far superior to "hulled corn," is less oily than 
yellow corn, and is very nutritious. Wash one cup of 
the corn and put it in one quart of cold water over night. 
Early in the morning put it with the water in the double 
boiler or steamer and cook eight or ten hours, or boil it 
until tender ; when done it should be as artistic as a dish 
of well cooked rice. Add boiling water if necessary while 
cooking. Serve as a vegetable or cereal. 



72 THE ART OF LIVING. 

EiCE^ Steamed. 

Wash thoroughly one cup of rice. Put in a porcelain 
dish with three cups of cold water, set in steamer and 
cook three hours. Add boiling water if necessary but 
do not break the grains. One cup of raisins may be 
cooked with the rice or a cup of figs cut fine, or dates 
seeded and carefully stirred in with a fork when the rice 
is half or nearly done. 

RiCE^ Boiled. 

Wash one cup of the best rice and put in a porcelain 
kettle with three quarts of rapidly boiling water. Cover 
and boil one half hour, drain off the water and set on 
back of stove or in the oven to steam dry. Do not stir it, 
and when done it will be a mass of entire white grains. 
May be served as a vegetable. Use as little salt as pos- 
sible in cereals. 



Many people cook cereals in a moderate oven, putting 
them to cook in the evening and in the morning they 
are ready for breakfast. Use the heavy earthenware 
with a cover for this purpose. 



VEGETABLES. 



Vegetables should be fresh, of medium size, and the 
best quality. Wash them thoroughly, remove imper- 
fections, and, as a rule, do not let them stand in water 
previous to cooking. Being rather coarse in their na- 
ture they should be sparingly eaten by those with weak 
digestion. Baked or steamed their juices and flavors 
are retained; boiled they are mostly lost, and become 
insipid, unless boiled in very little water, closely cov- 
ered, and taken up the moment they are done. They 
must be cooked until a fork. will easily penetrate them, 
and every cook will learn by experience to regulate the 
time of cooking. Fresh, tender vegetables cook much 
more quickly than old ones. 

Put an inverted saucer, plate or rack in the bottom 
of kettle, lay the vegetables on that and use as little 
water as possible, replenishing from the teakettle if 
necessary. To boil or stew, drop them in boiling water, 
and boil steadily but not hard, as the water never gets 
hotter than 213*, and just boiling is sufficient to cook 
them, and will keep the mealy potatoes whole. 

Dandelions, and Other Greens. 

These include a score or more of edibles nearly all 
waste. They must be well washed to free them from 
sand and insects. Boil or steam them from two to three 
hours. Drain and cut fine before seasoning. 



74 the art of living. 

Spinach. 

Cook by steam, or in a kettle without water, simmer- 
ing in its own juice until tender. 

Asparagus. 

With a sharp knife peel the tough skin from the 
large stalks. Cook them whole or cut in inch pieces. 
Serve plain or on slices of toast with or without white 
sauce. 

String Beans. 

Break off the ends of pods, remove the strings, and 
cut into inch pieces. Cook two or three hours, having 
but little water in them when done. 

Cauliflov^^er- and Cabbage. 

These and all similar vegetables may be washed and 
stand a few moments in salted water to free them 
from insects. Remove all coarse, withered leaves, cut 
in sections if large and cook from one to two hours, — 
excepting cauliflower, which, if boiled, should stand in 
kettle with the flowerets above the water, and it requires 
less time to cook. Serve plain or with white sauce. 

Green Peas and Beans. 

Peas will usually cook in half an hour, beans in an 
hour or more, depending upon the variety. 

Green Corn. 
Corn must be of the best and fresh, as it loses its 
flavor very quickly. If boiled, put it in a kettle of cold 



VEGETABLES. 75 

water, let it come to a boil, and cook three minutes, just 
long enough to set the milk. After a certain point is 
passed it becomes tough and hard. Steam six or eight 
minutes. Cut from the cob and stew three minutes. 

Succotash. 

This name came from the Narragansett Indians, who 
called it "m' sickquatash.^' 

Lima beans are the best for succotash. Cook them 
tlioroughly. Cut the corn from the cob in small pieces, 
press all the juice from the hulls left on the cobs, and 
add to the beans, season and cook five minutes. Use 
equal parts of beans and corn or more corn if preferred. 

Beets. 

Wash and leave the tops an inch long. Cook an hour 
or more, depending upon age and size. When done dip 
in cold water and remove the skins. 

Turnips^ Carrots, and Parsnips. 

These should be of good quality and medium size. 
Cook them whole or cut in slices or dice, in as little water 
as possible unless you steam them. 

Salsify or Oyster Plant. 

Wash and scrape the roots, cut in slices, and stew or 
steam until tender. Serve with sauce made of liquid in 
which they were cooked, adding water or milk and thick- 
ening with flour. 



76 the art of living. 

Potatoes. 

Cook potatoes in their "jackets" and peel just before 
serving. If boiled, the moment they are done drain off 
the water, and let them stand a few moments on the back 
of the range. A good potato — and no other is worth 
eating — does not require the extra work of mashing or 
stuffing. 

Old potatoes are of very little value. They may be 
pared and stand in cold water an hour before cooking. 
If they have been well preserved, are smooth and solid, 
they are better baked. Bake potatoes in a moderate 
oven and when done prick or press lightly in a clean 
towel to let the steam escape, and serve at once. 

Sweet Potatoes. 

Baking is the best method of cooking them. If boiled, 
when nearly done complete the cooking in the oven. 

Summer Squash. 

These should be tender enough to be cooked whole, 
but if not, then j^are, cut, and remove the seeds before 
cooking. When done put them in a thin cloth bag or 
square of cloth kept for that purpose and press the water 
out. Season and reheat them. 

Winter Squash. 

Cut in the size pieces you wish, remove all spots from 
the skin, scrape out the seeds, and cook from thirty 
minutes to an hour. When done remove from the skins 
with a spoon, season and mash very fine. If very dry, 
add a little boiling water when seasoning. Squash is 
very nice baked. 



vegetables. 77 

Tomatoes. 

These are properly a fruit, but are usually classed 
with vegetables, and are better uncooked. The solid 
varieties are superior for all purposes. Never leave 
them in the sun to ripen when picked too green, but put 
them in a cool dark place away from the light. Pour 
boiling water over them and remove the skins, slice, put 
in porcelain kettle without water and stew fifteen min- 
utes. If very juicy add toasted bread crumbs. They 
may be baked whole as you would bake apples. A favor- 
ite dish with many is one quart of stewed tomatoes and 
one cup or more of cold cooked rice ; heat and season. 

Onions. 

There is a great diversity of opinion regarding the 
use of onions as food. But whatever may be said against 
them, they are very largely used, and no other vegetable 
contains such possibilities for flavoring as the onion. 
The plainest fare may be made acceptable with only the 
daintiest taste of onion. The more thoroughly onions, 
either cooked or raw, are masticated the less odorous the 
breath. The white skinned are the mildest. 

Peel them, and, if strong, boil ten minutes with a 
small pinch of baking soda. Pour off that water and 
either cook by steam or boil in as little water as possible 
until tender. Or they may be sliced thin and cook in 
half an hour. 

Legumes. 

Beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts belong to this family, 
which are often called "pulse." They are of more im- 



78 THE ART OF LIVING. 

portanee than other vegetables, being very rich in pro- 
tein, beans containing, according to Payen, more than 
twice as much as the best wheat. The legumes are defi- 
cient in fat, hence the laboring man's demand for plenty 
of fat in his beans. They are so concentrated and nutri- 
tious they should be used very sparingly by those not 
engaged in physical labor. 

Beans, Baked. 

Soak a quart of pea beans or yellow eyes over night. 
In the morning, drain, put them in kettle with plenty 
of water and one half teaspoonful baking soda. Let 
them boil in this water five minutes. Then pour off the 
water and rinse thoroughly in cold water, and let them 
cook in fresh water until soft but not mushy. Pour into 
an earthen bean pot, season with a little salt and small 
piece of butter. Wesson oil, or Ko-Nut. Cover with 
water and bake several hours covered, and when nearly 
done remove cover and let them brown for an hour. A 
small onion in the bottom of the bean pot gives them a 
fine flavor, and many people add a level tablespoonful 
of sugar when seasoning them. Do not sweeten with 
molasses, and be sure they are well done. 

Beans, Stewed. 

Prepare as for baking, and cook slowly several hours^ 
and do not have them sloppy when done. 

Peas and Lentils. 
Prepare and stew or bake the same as dried beans. 



vegetables. 79 

Legume Soups or Purees. 

These are very nutritious, and with bread, gems, or 
rolls would make an excellent dinner. Pick over and 
wash one pint of white beans, soak them in a quart of 
water over night. In the morning drain, add two quarts 
of cold water, stew slowly three or four hours, then 
mash through a sieve and return to kettle. There should 
be about two quarts of soup, which, if thin, may be 
thickened with flour, made into a smooth paste with 
cold water, which add slowly to the soup and cook ten 
minutes. When ready to serve it should be of creamy 
consistency. 

Black wax beans, Limas, or any good bean may be 
prepared in the same way; also dried peas and lentils. 
Any other vegetable may be used in the above manner, 
with less time in cooking. 

Plain ^^hite Sauce. 

To one pint of boiling water add one heaping table- 
spoon of flour, one half teaspoon salt made smooth with 
two tablespoons of butter or oil and cool water. Dip a 
little of the hot water on the mixture in the bowl, care- 
fully blending it, then add slowly to the hot water, stir- 
ring five minutes; strain if not smooth. A suitable 
sauce for vegetables. 

The above formula is the same for meat stock, milk 
or fruit juice. In making gravies or liquid sauces, the 
liquid should be below the boiling point when the thick- 
ening is stirred in. 



80 the art of living. 

Brown Flour for Gravies. 

Put a pint or more of flour in a pan and set in the 
oven or on the stove and stir to prevent burning. When 
cold put in a glass can, cover and put away for use. 

Note. — It would be a saving of time, care, and flavor 
of vegetables, if j^ou have no steam cooker, to cook them 
in the heavy granite or earthen ware with close covers, 
and set in the oven with barely boiling water to cover 
them. Simmer slowly till done, leaving only sufficient 
liquid for serving them, which a little experience will 
give. In this way there will be no waste from steaming 
kettles, and the odors of strong vegetables will be con- 
fined to the oven. 



FRUITS 

Fruits are food and may be eaten as an entire meal, 
or part of a meal, never between meals unless one takes 
the juice as a drink. The apple and grape of our native 
fruits are entitled to the highest place. Eipe fruit is 
best eaten without sugar, the rich flavor is near the 
skin; reject the hard seeds of small fruits and also the 
skins of fruits and pulp and seeds of grapes. Only the 
juice of melons should be swallowed. Wait for them 
to ripen in your locality and never eat a stale melon. 
Fruits should not be spiced nor seasoned with flavoring 
extracts, but flavor one kind with another if you wish. 
All large fruits should be washed and dried with a clean 
towel before serving. Small fruits may be put in a 
colander a few at a time, set in a pan of cool water and 
rinsed with the hands. Eat very sparingly of acid fruits. 

Cooking Fruits. 

Wash small fruits, put them in a saucepan with very 
little water, and simmer slowly until done. Turn care- 
fully into an earthen dish, cover, and stand in a cool 
place. Always use care in handling cooked fruits, pre- 
serving their shape if possible, and cover to prevent 
escape of the aroma. 

Sub-acid Apples may be pared, quartered, and sim- 
mered two hours, closely covered, or until amber colored, 
in just water enough to cover them. When partially 
cool turn, without crushing them, into a glass or china 
dish and cover. 



83 THE ART OF LIVING. 

Apples^ Sweet or Sour^ should be covered. Bake 
very slowly with a little water in the plate till of a rich 
brown. 

Apples or Pears may be baked in an earthen jar wHh 
a cover until amber colored. Core and quarter them 
and lay them in the jar skin side up; pour over a small 
cup of water and half cup of sugar if you wish. 

Quinces and Sweet Apples may also be prepared 
and baked in the above manner, placed in alternate 
layers in the jar, and baked two hours, or until done, 
but must not lose their form. 

Ehubarb may be cut in inch pieces without peeling. 
Scald it in boiling water five minutes, drain, put in 
saucepan without water and with one cup of sugar to 
one quart of rhubarb. Simmer very slowly until just 
barely done. 

Cranberries should be stewed in very little water, 
strain to remove skins if you wish, then sweeten. 

Bananas^ when yellow-skinned and solid. Peel them, 
scrape off the white pith, lay them in pie plate with 
three or four spoonfuls water and bake in a hot oven 
twenty minutes or until soft. 

Pineapples should be shredded with a silver fork, or 
sliced. Swallow only the juice. 

Oranges may have one end cut off, then, with a spoon,, 
eat only the juice. 

Canning Fruits. 

Fresh fruits are easily obtained all the year round. 
Canning, pickling, and preserving, the making of jams, 
jellies, and marmalades, that are such an additional 
burden to the housewife, might be much reduced. But 



FRUITS. 83 

SO long as we must have them prepare them at home and 
do not depend upon the grocer for any of these goods, 
as they are of doubtful quality. We are constantly being 
warned against the use of these things, yet because they 
are cheap the warnings are not heeded. Canning fac- 
tories cannot use the best fruit and sugar for Jams and 
jellies. Apples, heing cheap, are the basis of the cheaper 
grades of these goods, used with coloring and flavoring, 
and glucose, a cheap product for sweetening them; and 
the sweets are only eight or ten cents a glass, and "such 
a bargain.'' A ten cent Jar of Jam cannot contain ex- 
pensive ingredients, and the less said about their com- 
position the better. In canned vegetables are found 
poisonous preservatives, and one had better use fresh 
vegetables. Even tomatoes do not escape being doc- 
tored. 

Fruits for canning should not be overripe. See that 
cans, rubbers, and covers are perfect. Sterilize the 
covers in a basin of boiling water, and heat the cans in 
warm water before filling them. Small fruits should 
be Just barely cooked in a little water. Larger fruits 
should be pared, quartered, and cooked until tender. 
Seckel pears should be cooked whole until amber colored, 
and all fruit should be canned without sugar. Only 
the best varieties of tomatoes are suitable for canning, 
and unless one is very careless in sealing cans no fruit 
will ferment; if it does then throw it away, as no 
amount of doctoring will make it suitable to be eaten. 

Fruit Juices. 

Grapes and small fruits may be washed, put in sauce 
kettle with a little water, heated to extract the JuicCj 



84 THE ART OF LIVING. 

strained through Jelly bag, reheated, skimmed and 
canned boiling hot like fruits, without sugar. Fruit 
juices are better than jellies for those who need them. 

Dried Fruits. 

The sweet dried fruits are very nutritious ; they should 
be well washed in warm water before being eaten. 
Prunes and all other dried fruits are better if made ten- 
der by soaking in tepid water, or swelling and simmer- 
ing if necessary several hours on the back of the range 
or covered in the oven. No sugar is required in the 
better quality of these fruits. Many of our apples, 
peaches, and apricots are bleached and thus poisoned. 
The brown sun-dried fruit is better. 



ANIMAL FOODS. 



Although a non-flesh eater more than half my We, 
Tet, so long as people use meat, I have made it a part ot 
iy work to teach them its hygienic cookery. The mod- 
ern methods of meat cooking are burdensome to the 
cook To me they have been a very simple part ot the 
daily routine. Meat once a day was sufficient for people 
engaged in any kind of labor and they required no fancy 
or combination dishes to minister to their appetite. 

Animal food comprises fish, flesh, fowl, milk, and eggs. 
Beef and mutton are considered the best. Fowls are 
nearly as nutritious as beef. Pork and veal are not easily 
digested. Whether fowl and swine are scavengers depends 
upon those who have the care and feeding of them and 
one cannot be too careful in this matter. Fish contain- 
ing the least oil are the best, and sea food are scaven- 
gers The dainties prepared from the internal organs 
of animals are inferior to their flesh, yet if not used the 
flesh would be more expensive than it now is Oysters 
clams, and all of this class are a low order of food, yet 
are deemed great luxuries. Milk, the condensed essence 
of the cow mother, is produced from the same food that 
grows her flesh, but was designed expressly for the grow- 
in- of the infant calf world until able to forage for 
themselves. Milk is an extremely sensitive fluid and 
normally would not be exposed to light or air. Strange 
that man is the only mammal never yet weaned, when 
he knows that milk is never free from atmospheric 



86 THE ART OF LIVING. 

microbes except when taken in the natural way ! Eggs 
are strictly animal food, the condensed chicken in 
embryo. Eggs, milk and its products contain no waste 
and are so highly organized and nutritious that thtir 
excessive use in the absence of flesh often produces an 
excess of fat, bloat, and rheumatic, gouty, and other seri- 
ous disturbances. Animals for the table, whether for 
their flesh, milk, or eggs, should be fed on the cleanest 
food, should drink pure water, be kept in clean sur- 
roundings, and be well cared for in every way. 

Never purchase a piece of stale meat because it is 
cheap — it is dear at any price. Cold storage meats so 
largely used are deprived of nutrient qualities and 
ilavors by long keeping. Canned meats contain inju- 
rious preservatives. Meats and fish deteriorate through 
the salting process. The flesh of young animals is less 
nutritious than of those more mature. Steaks and chops 
are too expensive except for those with a full purse. 
Less expensive cuts are more nutritious and go much 
farther in feeding a family. Meats should be made 
clean before cooking by wiping with a clean damp towel 
or rinsing in tepid water and wiping. Pay special atten- 
tion to the inside of fowl and fish. Meat should be 
slowly and well cooked, but not ruined by drying in a 
hot oven. When steamed nothing is lost in weight or 
flavor and the cooking is less work. Salt fish and very 
salt beef should soak over night in cold water to remove 
all the salt possible. 



MEAT COOKERY. 



Baked or Eoasted Meats. 

The process is similar for all meats. Wipe the meat 
with damp towel, put it in bake pan and set in a very 
hot oven that it may sear all over quickly, or sear it in 
a hot frying pan on the stove, turning as you would 
steak. Cooked in a double roasting pan the flavor is 
better retained, and no basting is required; otherwise 
cover it with a deep pan, and let it cook in its own juices 
without water or salt. If very lean lay over it beef drip- 
pings or thin slices of fat. One must use one's own ex- 
perience as to time of cooking, but it must cook slowly 
and be well done without burning. When done remove 
to a warm platter and thicken the gravy, adding water 
if necessary. A heaping tablespoon of flour is sufficient 
for a pint of gravy; if too thick add boiling water and 
cook a little longer. 

Boiled and Stewed Meats. 

All kinds of meats, including fowls, are boiled or 
stewed in a similar manner. If the piece is mutton, 
remove the thin skin, as therein lies the flavor disliked 
by many. Put in the kettle and pour sufficient boiling 
water over to just cover it. Let it come to a boil, but 
do not skim it, then set it where it will slowly cook. If 
the meat is young and a small piece, it will cook in an 
hour and a half or two hours, but if old it may require 
five or six hours. Cut in pieces the size for serving, if 



88 THE ART OF LIVING. 

you wish meat stewed, and proceed as in boiling. Add 
boiling water if necessary while cooking and have suffi- 
cient for gravy when done. Take up the meat on a 
platter and, if the liquid is too fat, remove it and thicken 
the gravy with Hour made into a smooth paste with a 
little cold water. Salt the gravy but not the meat. If 
flavorings are desired a finely minced onion, a little 
celery or parsley may be used. 

Pot Roast of Beef. 

Put the meat in a pan and pour boiling water over it 
to retain the juices ; then put it in the pot or kettle with 
one or two cups of boiling water (depending upon its 
size). Cover closely and set where it will slowly cook 
or simmer until very tender. Do not let it burn, and 
have liquid for gravy when done. 

It is a good plan to put a small rack, a saucer or plate 
under meat when thus cooking. 

Broiled Meats. 

Beefsteak should be trimmed and bone removed if 
large. Place it on a hot oiled broiler over hot coals. 
Open the stove dampers to allow the escape of smoke 
and gas. Sear quickly upon each side to retain the 
juices and turn often to prevent burning. A thick steak 
will cook in ten or twelve minutes. When done, remove 
to a warm platter and allow each person to season to 
taste. Chops or steaks may also be broiled over hot coals 
in a very hot frying pan, or in a very hot oven, some pre- 
ferring the latter, as it is less care and results are as 
good. 



MEAT COOKERY. 89 

To have the best Hamburg steak, purchase the round 
or even a lower priced cut (far more nutritious than 
sirloin), grind or chop it and make into small flat cakes 
with the hand and broil in a hot oiled frying pan. An- 
other way is to stew it in a little water for two hours or 
less, season slightly and flavor with a little onion or 
mint. 

Chicken and Turkey. 

To lessen work steam them whole, or bake in double 
or covered pan and save care in basting. A cup of 
water may be put in the pan. Some of our modern 
cooks are not using dressing in fowls or fish, which is 
a great saving of work for hands and digestion. 

Fish. 

Fish of all kinds, large or small, are more delicate 
when steamed than prepared in any other way. If 
boiled, wrap in a clean white cloth and lay on a rack or 
inverted saucer in kettle with a quart or more of boiling 
water. Cover and cook gently until done. If baked, 
lay the whole fish on a rack in pan, skin side down, add 
a cup of water or equal parts of milk and water, cover 
and bake from half an hour to an hour or more, accord- 
ing to size. When done remove to warm platter and 
make the gravy, adding water or milk to that in the pan. 
If one must fry fish use a kettle of deep fat. 

Albumen. 

Albumens are flesh formers. Water boils at 212o and 
never gets any hotter, no matter how agitated it be- 
comes, but the friction of it will spoil nice potatoes by 
bursting the skins. Temperature just below ISO^ is 



90 THE ART OF LIVING. 

proper to cook meats and Have the albumen digestible. 
When put in boiling water the outside albumen is coagu- 
lated and the pores closed to retain the juices. The 
effect is the same whether boiled, baked, broiled, or 
steamed. The brown flak}^ substance in the broth is 
a digestible form of albumen, and very nutritious. The 
white of an egg is the most perfect type of pure albumen. 
It coagulates at from 130o to 140o, at from I6O0 to ISO© 
it is soft and jelly-like, at 212o indigestible. If in 
cooking it is kept at 160° or much lower it is nearly as 
digestible as in the raw state, being a flaky jelly. 

Egg Omelet. 

To the yolks of four beaten eggs add a pinch of salt 
and four tablespoons hot water; then carefully cut and 
fold in the whites that have been beaten to a stiff dry 
foam, thus incorporating all the air possible. Pour the 
mixture evenly into a hot oiled frying pan and cook 
slowly until lightly browned on the bottom; then set in 
oven to brown on the top. When done deftly fold and 
remove to a warm platter. This omelet should be soft 
and creamy. Fried egg? are very indigestible. 

Poached Eggs. 

Into a shallow pan two thirds full of boiling water put 
oiled muffin rings, and break one egg into each. The 
water should just cover them, and as soon as a film has 
settled over them, remove with an oiled skimmer to 
slices of toast. They must not boil, but be like jelly 
when done. In making custards, the milk or water 
used should be hot and stirred carefully into the eggs 



MEAT COOKERY. 91 

and sugar, and either steamed or set in a pan of hot 
water in the oven to gradually reach the jelly condition. 
Test with a knife blade. 

Eggs Jellied. 

Put the number you wish to cook in a warm deep 
kettle or dish, pour boiling water over them to the depth 
of four or six inches, and let them stand away from the 
stove ten minutes, longer will do no harm, and in this 
form they are easily digested. 

Soups, Purees ais^d Stews. 

Clear thin soups have very little value. Purees are 
thick soups, and well made of nutritious material might, 
with good bread, make an entire dinner. Left overs of 
any kind of meat may be used as an addition to a puree 
of split peas or beans, or other vegetables may be used 
in the same way. If you buy a soup bone have it cut 
in small pieces; wash, put in cold water to cover, let it 
come to a boil and cook slowly until meat will drop from 
the bones. Remove the meat, bones and surplus fat, then 
add sliced vegetables of any sort you wish and stew until 
done; or they may be put in before the meat is done. 
Such stews may be served with dumplings, or zweiback 
(twice baked bread), gems or rolls. A twenty-five cent 
piece of meat cooked in the above manner will furnish 
more nutriment for a large family than three times that 
amount spent for roasts or steaks. 



NUTS AS FOOD. 



Generally considered, nnts have been regarded as a 
dessert luxury, or to be eaten between meals. But their 
culture as a special article of food is destined in the 
near future to assume immense proportions. We should 
not become nut eaters, but if it were impossible to pro- 
cure animal foods in this the greatest of meat eating 
nations, there need be no starvation, no loss of nerve 
nor strength of muscle. 

Animal foods are becoming more costly every year, 
and should they reach beyond the purse of the world's 
toilers, then they may with complacency turn to the tree- 
bearing meats and plant-producing oils and be bounte- 
ously fed and nourished. But with the physical consti- 
tution of the present human race there are many who 
cannot digest nuts, and would need to gradually accus- 
tom themselves to their use. However, we may in per- 
fect serenity of soul turn to the grains, fruits, and vege- 
tables and find therein all the elements required to sus- 
tain an active life beyond the century mark. 

Nuts should be ground fine in the food chopper, and 
once grinding prepares them for serving on the table in 
place of meats. When ground to a paste they are ready 
to use in gravies, soups, stews, and shortening if one 
desires to so use them, although they are expensive for 
this purpose. When made into paste, a little water and 
salt converts them into nut butter. 



>TUTS AS FOOD. 93 

Peanuts should be eaten uncooked or but very slightly 
browned, as when a deep brown they are like burned fat 
and quite indigestible. 

There are preparations of predigested nut foods upon 
the market each having its special merits. No one 
article requires more thorough mastication than nuts. 
They should be reduced to liquid in the mouth, and 
elaborate mixtures with other food should be avoided. 



VEGETABLE OILS and FRIED FOODS. 



When our hygiene has reached far enough to exclude 
fried and shortened foods from the present overburdened 
list of such eatables then we shall have greatly reduced 
expense and taken another step forward in the culture 
of health by right living. There are easier and better 
methods of preparing food, but so long as we indulge in 
them the purest fat should be used. 

Although vegetable oils have been extensively used in 
this and other countries for many years, yet they have 
not come into such general use as their merits demand. 
They should meet with special favor on account of their 
economy, purity and ease of digestion. The oils in gen- 
eral use are Olive Oil, Wesson Cooking Oil and Ko-Nut. 
It is possible to obtain a pure olive oil, but most of it is 
adulterated with an inferior grade of cotton seed and 
other oils, and this is why it becomes rancid and an un- 
pleasant flavor is imparted to food cooked in it. 

Wesson Cooking Oil, manufactured in Savannah, Ga., 
is a highly refined product of the best cotton seed, and 
the manufacturers tell us that "the objectionable char- 
acteristics are entirely removed by a process analogous 
to the refining of raw sugar. It bears the same relation 
to ordinary cotton seed oil that granulated sugar does 
to common brown sugar.*'' And so the beautiful cotton 
plant not onl}'^ furnishes fabric for the world's millions, 
but within its snow white down is matured the seed that 
art and skill have made available for the use of man and 



VEGETABLE OILS AND FRIED FOOD. 95 

beast. Let us be proud of this product of American 
soil, and never hesitate to call it cotton seed oil. 

The stately cocoanut also claims recognition but not 
supremacy, although with her elegantly plumed head 
she towers far above her sister of the cotton fields. For 
many years in Germany and England the nuts have been 
made into butter for general use. In the tropics the oil 
from the nuts has been one of the staple articles of food 
for centuries. The India Refining Company in Phila- 
delphia, Pa., have perfected a process for purifying and 
sterilizing the oil of the cocoanut fruit. "This process 
renders it pure, wholesome, and attractive and it keeps 
in this condition for an indefinite time.'' It bears the 
pleasant name of Ko-N^ut, a pure fruit fat, and may in 
the near future be produced from home grown fruit. 
The great economy in their production precludes the 
necessity for adulteration, and should one product fail 
there will be no lack of supply from other undeveloped 
sources. These fats do not become rancid and may be 
used in all cookery ; even in the finest cakes, sauces, and 
salads their presence cannot be detected. With the use 
of water for mixing they completely take the place of all 
animal products, even in seasoning vegetables, and with 
a little salt may be used as butter. With these desirable 
products one finds it easier to be a strict vegetarian in 
the present century, and wherever grocers introduce 
these articles they become very popular with those who 
•Qse a mixed diet. 



SALADS. 

From ancient literature we learn that "the existence 
of sallets arose out of hygienic principles." Leeks, 
onions, garlic, and cucumbers were freely eaten by the 
Egyptians, the usual breakfast being made of bread and 
onions. Lettuce and endive flavored with minced onions 
were daily used in Kome, dressed with oil and honey. 
Their salads were made of edible roots, herbs, green 
leaves, and flowers "served with vinegar, sallet oyl and 
sugar.'' Until the close of the eighteenth century our 
ancestors ate salads before the heavier dishes of the 
table. In salads we get our raw food, of herbs, vege- 
tables, green leaves, flowers and fruits, and all should be 
as fresh and crisp as possible. Oil, sugar, lemon juice, 
or vinegar are the proper seasonings, and each person 
should do his or her own seasoning. Hot, fiery dress- 
ings are not necessary on these fresh edibles, and mix- 
tures should be avoided as much as possible. 



SEASONINGS and CONDIMENTS. 



It is useless to expect to restore the flavor of wasted 
nutrients by seasoning our food. It is quite impossible 
to duplicate or improve nature's delicate chemistry by 
additions after subtracting, in stewpans and steaming 
kettles, the very best of the article by such cooking. 
Few of us know anything about the real taste of any 
cooked vegetable or fruit unless it is cooked by baking 
covered, or by steaming and testing it unseasoned. The 
careless methods of boiling destroy all the fine flavors 
and waste the salts, so we get the tasteless water-soaked 
vegetable, and "season well with salt, pepper and but- 
ter/' and meats are deluged with sharp sauces, pickled 
and spiced condiments, and thus our food is disguised 
and taste never knows what real food is like. It should 
be the custom for every one to season his or her own 
food ; indeed, this would be economy, for there are many 
people who never eat anything, no matter how well it 
may be seasoned, without an extra seasoning of salt and 
butter. Pepper should not be put into food, as many 
do not use it. Lemon juice is better than vinegar where 
an acid is wanted. 

Sugar is so cheap the temptation to use it is great, 
and so our fruit and everything possible is ruined with 
an excess of it. Fresh fruit and sweet herb flavors are 
better than extracts. Wines and liquors have no legiti- 
mate place in food or drink, yet there are thousands of 
recipes containing liquor that find their way into our 



98 THE ART OF LIVING. 

homes in cookbooks, papers and magazines. Spices are 
largely adulterated and if used at all should be pur- 
chased whole and ground as needed. Need we wonder 
that ill health and intemperance still hold the human 
fort? 

Natural hunger does not call for those things that 
merely taste good while going down and that the stom- 
ach does not know what to do with after they get there. 
The crippled, overtaxed machinery does the best it can 
while run on the high pressure plan, and the residue of 
refuse is stored up in bones, joints, and tissues, which 
later invite the stray traveler in the guise of fever, colds, 
malaria, rheumatism, or other poison to walk in. The 
robust, healthy (?) looking person is often the victim, 
while the thinner and more delicate escape with only 
'^iver complaint" and "dyspepsia" attached to their 
anatomy with such a grip they fail to die from either 
surfeit or starvation ! As we advance toward a more 
wisely selected diet we shall find i:he necessity for con- 
diments and seasonings diminishing. 



DESSERTS. 



Why do we have them ? Simply because they are cus- 
tomary and the habits of civilization demand that we 
eat them after having 'eaten an abundance of more sub- 
stantial food. Woman, the chief caterer to the human 
palate and also the greatest sufferer, because of her artis- 
tic creations in the department of desserts and other 
sweets, has not yet seen fit to make the necessary inno- 
vations to insure a decided change in this important 
matter of domestic economy, which means less money 
outside the home and more health inside the home. 

If custom would reverse itself and eat the desserts at 
the beginning of the dinner, or eat them along with the 
dinner, there would be less gluttony and a long step- 
would be taken toward health and temperance. And 
more than this: intelligent people would soon find that 
the accustomed desserts were not at all essential to their 
comfort, and wonder why they had been so long in find- 
ing it out. 

Every reader of papers, magazines, and cookbooks 
finds a surfeit of cakes, pastries, and puddings, besides 
a most bewildering array of gustatory temptations. In 
this book, that means better health and longer life, it is 
not advisable to burden the cook with them. From a 
physiological, scientific, and medical standpoint our diet 
is one-sided because of the excess of sweets, starch, and 



100 THE ART OF LIVING. 

fats; these are flesh and fat formers and difficult of 
digestion. We have so many sweet teeth that the tempta- 
tion to the excessive use of sugar is very great. But if 
we must have something to "top off with" there is noth- 
ing better than good bread and butter and a dish ol' 
cooked fruit; or dates, figs, raisins, prunes that have 
been well washed and covered with sufficient water to 
plump them to normal size. This may be done in a 
few hours on the back of the range or by steaming a 
fehort time. A moderate use of loaf sugar or the finest 
quality of candied sweets, maple sugar or honey with 
bread, especially for children, would be preferable to 
the high grade cookery the present age demands. 



PASTRIES. 



Many people think fruit is improved by baking be- 
tween two crusts. If so prepared, then the very best 
of material is none too good. The crust should be plain, 
shortened with cream, butter, or vegetable oil, and the 
pies slowly and well baked, and containing as little sea- 
soning as possible. Bake everything you can with one 
crust. Put fruit in a deep dish with sugar, a little 
water, and lay over it a shortcake crust a half inch thick 
and bake slowly until well browned. " Shortcake baked, 
split open and spread with any kind of fruit, fresh or 
cooked, is preferable to the conventional pie. Custards 
should just cook slowly to a jelly without boiling. If 
to be poured over fresh fruit, use one tablespoon heap- 
ing full of cornstarch dissolved to one pint of boiling 
water for two eggs, and just let it come to a jelly stand- 
ing in a pan of water in the oven. Desserts should be 
eaten with bread to insure thorough mastication. 



CAKE. 

Let every intelligent woman consider for one half 
hour the days and weeks during one year of her life that 
are spent in beating and creaming eggs, butter, and 
sugar and the manufacture of cakes, big and little, that 
are then frosted, ornamented, and stuffed with rich 
cream, fruit, and other fillings. These please the eye 
and the palate for a brief moment only, are a waste of 
time, strength, and money, and do not in any sense con- 
tribute to the proper nourishment of the human temple. 
The penalties are paid in headaches, dyspepsia, and 
other ills that invite the doctor into our homes. A tea 
table would look "pretty bare and poverty stricken with- 
out cake," you say. Perhaps so, but why custom de- 
creed that cake should be nibbled 365 nights in the year 
instead of mornings or noons is perhaps due to the fact 
that woman is naturally the table caterer. She enjoys 
feeding on tidbits and sweet dainties on every possible 
occasion at home and abroad and delights in tempting- 
men with them, wlien they would doubtless prefer a slice 
of good bread and butter tbat would give far better sat- 
isfaction. Cake is never satisfying to a normal appe- 
tite and is a heavy tax on digestion when eaten at night. 
If used at all it should be the first course at dinner or 
taken with the dinner. 

Every kind of sweet may be mixed with pure soft 
water, hot or cold; milk is more clogging and heavy. 
Use less spice, eggs, and sugar; vegetable fats are more 
delicate than animal fats for such use. 



COMPOSITION OF FOOD PRODUCTS 

AND 

FOOD COMBINATIONS. 



In all articles of food, both animal and vegetable, 
there is more or less waste or refuse, — bones, seeds, 
skins, shells, and other waste. Prof. W. 0. Atwater 
tells us that "the proportions of refuse are from 8 to 10 
per cent, in a round of beef, about 14 per cent, in eggs, 
18 per cent, in a leg of mutton, 40 per cent, in chicken, 
and 50 per cent, or more in some kinds of fish. In such 
food materials as milk, flour, and bread there is no 
refuse. Ordinary flour contains about 121/2 per cent, 
or one eighth of water. The fatter kinds of meat con- 
tain from 15 to 50 per cent, and the lean meats from 
50 to 75 per cent, of water. One third of the weight of 
bread and three fourths of the weight of potatoes con- 
sist of water. After removing the water, which is the 
same as any other water, and has no more value for 
nutriment, the edible portion remaining is called by 
chemists "water free substance." In nuts and grains 
there is very little waste as compared with flesh foods, 
but the per cent, of water in fruits and vegetables is 
very large. 

The nutrients are divided into four classes called pro- 
tein, fats, carbohydrates, and mineral matters. The 
terms "nitrogenous compounds," * 'albuminoids," and 
""proteids" are aften applied to the "protein" compounds,. 



104 THE ART OF LIVING. 

which are the builders and repairers of the body. The 
protein is the chief nutritive constituent of fish and 
eggs, lean meat, albumen and casein of milk and gluten 
of wheat, and is also found in beans, peas, and in aU 
kinds of vegetable food; nuts are rich in protein and 
fruits contain it to some extent. The fats we obtain 
from flesh food in the form of lard and suet ; from milk, 
in cream and butter; from the vegetable world, the 
grains, seeds and nuts in the form of oils; and indeed 
a little fat is found in nearly all food material. Carbo- 
hydrates are starch and sugar and are similar in chem- 
ical composition. Eice, potatoes, peas, beans, grains, 
nuts, and some fruits contain more or less starch and 
many of them are rich in sugar. Animal food is defi- 
cient in starch and sugar, only milk containing the lat- 
ter. These are the substances that the vital force trans- 
forms into blood that builds and keeps the body in 
repair. 

The body is nearly all liquid, and so is the food we 
consume. Then if it be pure and properl}^ cooked and 
eaten why need we drink water by the gallon to wash 
out impurities? Water is very much alive, and many 
cook it, the question being. Which is better to eat, the 
germs alive or dead? 

Food Combinations. 

The entire sentient world below man instinctively 
make their own combinations of food so long as left to 
themselves. But when the animal becomes domesticated, 
man makes them for him, and cultivates his taste, even 
for alcoholic ensilage. During the process of cultiva- 



COMPOSITION OF FOOD PRODUCTS. 105 

tion, the culture of disease begins and the animal finally 
suffers many things in the way of diseases and physi- 
cians, as a partial compensation ( ?) for care and educa- 
tion into habits of civilized life. 

So with man in his early days, happy in his ignorance 
it was "folly to be wise" ; and so long as he accepted the 
wisdom of nature's chemist, he instinctively knew things 
as did the other animals. He had no need to ask what 
he should combine with this or that to render it har- 
monious in his anatomy, to build and repair his temple. 
But taste led him astray, and he began to study combi- 
nations. A little of this, so much of that, a little more 
of the other, must be taken each day to keep the temple 
in working order. Xot only that but different articles 
must agree well together to prevent internal quarrels. 
Food is all right in its purity and uncombined. The 
artificial chemist steps in and combines so rapidly, sep- 
arates the grains, minces the fruits, sterilizes and pre- 
digests so many things that have been under the ban of 
condemnation, what is one to do, or how really to know ? 
There seems no other way out but a common sense way. 
If we only had again our normal appetites we should 
know ; but having left the instinct away behind us in our 
search for ''nice" things, why not wait until it again 
asserts itself? For Nature knows just what she needs, 
while her cultivated, artificial self is in the darkness of 
ignorance. 

There are a few general rules that may be made plain 
and from these one will be able to guide one's self. 
Bread and ripe fruit without cream or sugar, or a small 
quantity of well cooked cereal with figs or dates, raisins 



106 THE ART OF LIVING. 

or prunes, and bread are good combinations for break- 
fast or supper. Cream and sugar are not a wise combi- 
nation on any food nor in hot drinks. 

Meat, potato, and one other vegetable, or two at most, 
are a dinner combination. Use a solid and succulent 
vegetable at the same meal, one sweeter than the other. 
Sweet potato or squash with tomato, turnip, or onion. 
Baked beans may be eaten with tomatoes, but beans are 
so nutritious they need to be used with caution unless 
one is actively engaged. Puree of beans or peas with 
hard bread make a nutritious dinner. In hot weather 
meat iiaay be dispensed with as a rule, and vegetables 
used more freely, unless eggs and fish are substituted 
for meat. 

If animal food of any kind is used, nuts should not be 
eaten except to a limited extent. If meat is discarded, 
nuts may be used with the vegetable dinner, but they 
should be finely ground. Rice and white corn samp 
well cooked are good substitutes for potato. If fresh 
fruits of any kind are eaten with the dinner take them 
as the first course, and all desserts should be the first 
course instead of the last. Uncooked fruits and meats 
do not combine well, neither do raw fruits and vege- 
tables in many cases. Pork and beans saturated with 
vinegar, and hot brown bread, can be safely eaten by 
few except the outdoor laborer. 

The person with a normal appetite will be able to so 
combine his food as to produce good results. He will 
select from the menu that which appeals to him. He 
will masticate thoroughly, taking from forty to sixty 
minutes for his dinner, and will reject cellulose and 



COMPOSITION OF FOOD PRODUCTS. 107 

other fibrous substance. Food thus digested in the 
mouth by the action of saliva is then prepared for the 
action of gastric juice in the stomach; and if food is 
plain and nutritious, combinations may be left to indi- 
vidual selection. A word of caution is necessary to 
persons who adopt a vegetable diet, as they are apt to 
forget that some of the substitutes used are more con- 
centrated than meat, and so partake of them to their 
injury, feeling that they must do this in order to keep 
up their strength. Peas, beans, and lentils contain more 
nutritious substance than meat or other vegetables. 
They are said to contain as much carbon as wheat and 
almost double the amount of nitrogen. This being the 
case we require but a limited quantity of these articles, 
instead of daily use, and the same may be said of nuts, 
also of cream, cheese, and eggs, all so often used to excess 
at every meal through fear that the system will not be 
properly nourished. Whole wheat bread is essential and 
far better, in the absence of meat, than the excess of 
other nitrogenous foods. To balance our diet with com- 
binations or articles deficient in fat, we serve beans with 
fatty meats, butter, oils or pork; bread with nuts or 
butter; potatoes with oily nuts, vegetable oils, butter, 
cream or beef; rice with fats, and thus the daily waste 
of the body is replaced by a very few articles well chosen. 
There is no end of variety every day in the year, with 
little anxiety or thought about it, except to bear in mind 
that we should eat to live and that hunger always calls 
for the real suhstantials, and not for fancy made dishes 
and other things containing an excess of waste and that 
are of no special use. 



SUMMING UP THE COOKING 
DEPARTMENT. 



SPECIAL POINTS FOR MOTHERS. 

"I have formed a settled conviction that the world is fed too much. 
Pastries, cakes, hot bread, rich grains, pickles, pepper sauce, salads, tea 
and coffee are discarded from * my bill of fare,' and I firmly believe that 
they will be from the recipes of the twentieth century. Entire wheat 
flour bread, vegetables, fruit, fish, with a very little meat, and water as 
the chief drink will distill in the alembic of the digestive organs into pure, 
rich, feverless blood, electric but steady nerves, and brains whose chief 
delight will be to ' think God's thoughts after Him.* ''—Frances Willard. 

It is simplicity in healthful living on a mixed diet. 
The food products are grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts 
and meats. The articles used in their preparation for 
the table are salt, sugar, butter, cream, milk, and vege- 
table oils ; and these in as small quantity as possible 
that we may get the real delicate flavor of food. The 
food is well and carefully cooked to retain all its flavors 
and juices. Combinations are few, recipes tested, and 
none are worthless. To make this dei)artment strictly 
vegetarian, all one has to do is to substitute water and 
vegetable oils for milk, cream, and butter. To be a non- 
flesh eater, avoid the meats, and use animal products 
and fish if you wish. In this way the book is adapted 
to all classes of dietists; even the Raw Food eaters and 
Fruitarians may make their selections from this depart- 
ment. 

Many of my vegetarian readers will doubtless question 
the assertions that meat or fish in moderation are pref- 



SUMMING UP THE COOKING DEPARTMENT. 109 

erable in many cases to the excessive use of animal 
products. But I speak from the practical experiment 
and experience of many years in and out of sanitariums, 
both personal and with my patients and their families. 
We must bear in mind that the cow and the hen exist 
under the high pressure process of abnormal stimula- 
tion that they may produce beyond the normal capacity, 
and that a portion of their food is of questionable qual- 
ity. The great majority of cooks use eggs where food 
would be better without them, healthwise. Milk in 
some form enters into the majority of made dishes, and 
the milk many people drink with their hearty meals is 
surprising, and doubtless the stomach is greatly sur- 
prised when compelled to manufacture indigestible 
cheese curds. 

The labor of preparing food is reduced from four or 
six hours a day to two or three and less in a small family. 
Breakfast and supper are almost a cipher so far as prep- 
aration goes. To vary the dinner menu the once elabo- 
rate breakfast may be served and with but one regular 
meal the oft-recurring question, "What shall I get for 
dinner ?'' will give the cook no trouble, for Xature assert- 
ing herself knows just what she needs. One will not 
feel "rushed*' in the morning, and if men must have 
breakfast it can be so arranged at night that they will 
have no difficulty in preparing it, while the mother rests, 
or takes the extra sleep that is so often a necessity. 

Children are not hungry earl}^ in the morning and 
should not be coaxed or compelled to eat. If they are 
going to school put some fruit in the lunch box and they 
will come home with an appetite for dinner. With no 



110 THE ART OF LIVING. 

cooked sweets within reach there will be no temptation to 
eat between meals, and entire wheat bread and fruit will 
satisfy a child for supper, and there is great variety for 
changes even in a limited meal. If the tea table "looks 
bare" without the accustomed sweets, then serve this 
light meal from a tray outside the dining room. The 
children would enjoy a picnic supper, and even a guest 
would never miss the usual sweets, if provided with good 
bread, butter, and fruit. With these improved methods 
of living, the luncheons, teas, and light refreshments 
so conspicuous at unseasonable hours and such a menace 
to health would be entirely set aside, as well as nibbles 
of dainties and drinks at lunch counters now so preva- 
lent and enticing to women when shopping. These are 
strictly modern inventions that appeal to the palate, are 
patronized by women, and induce destructive habits. 
'^The Bishop of London, Viscount Peel, and Lady 
Henry Somerset have recently testified that drunken- 
ness among English women is increasing at an alarming 
rate, the number of convictions of London women for 
intoxication having risen from twenty-five to fifty-one 
per thousand within a few years. The Bishop of Lon- 
don says there are many cases among the upper circles 
of society where husbands have been dragged down to 
poverty and disgrace by the drunkenness of wives." At 
the recent convention of the W. C. T. U in Portland, 
Me., Lady Somerset spoke of the great difficulties of 
temperance work in England owing to the number of 
women who are inebriates. She also warned us against 
"the growing fondness for drink among the women of 
America." 



SUMMING UP THE COOKING DEPARTMENT. Ill 

Eating habits precede the tippling habit, and many 
women are very thoughtless in these matters, and their 
own unwise habits are intensified in their children. The 
artificial appetite created, fed, and encouraged by igno- 
rance, called love, that denies the child nothing, is the 
essence of selfishness and criminality ! The child's de- 
praved palate craves stimulants in food and drink and 
the gustatory habits of children and youth almost exceed 
belief, and there seems no limit to the elastic capacity 
of the juvenile stomach. Every mother should study 
humane methods for herself, then become, in earnest, 
a society for the prevention of cruelty to her children I 

Women have imposed many social burdens and cus- 
toms upon themselves that demand too great an expendi- 
ture of brain, muscle, and nerve; and when we use more 
wise thought and less money in meeting every form of 
social life we shall have a firmer, friendlier grasp upon 
the whole world of activities than is at present possible. 
We indulge the hope that women will sometime set their 
ideals so high that they will deem it decidedly inhuman 
and vulgar to provide drinks and dainties for the palate 
on every possible occasion. We hear of the new woman, 
but she will remain in her phantom shape until the 
present woman creates a new order in the Art of Living. 



Part HI. 

THOUGHTS LEADING TOWARD 
PRACTICAL IDEALS. 



•• If you would not be forgotten as soon 

you are dead, write things worth read' 

or do things worth writing," — Franklin. 



as you are dead, write things worth reading s 



" Speak clearly if you speak at all. j 

Carve every word before you let it fall." .{ 

— Holmes. ^ 

"Help me to deal very honestly with 1 

words as with people, because they are both j 

alive. Give me an ideal that will stand the ^ 

strain of weaving into human stuif on the j 

loom of the real.— Henry J. Van Dyke. I 
From " The Author's Prayer." 



PEARLS OF WISDOM. 

From the Writings of Jos. M. Wade.* 



5^ "The greatest of all earthly possessions is a healthy, 
well-formed body and well-balanced mind; with them 
come the blessings of earth life." 

^ "When thou art told to '^know thyself do not mistake 
the body for thyself, for the body is but the dwelling 
place, as it were." 

^ "All pleasures are paid for in pain after the pleasure. 
Wise men experience neither joy nor sorrow, — if we ex- 
perience one we must experience the other." 

^ "That which is necessary for our healthy existence will 
destroy us if taken in excess." 

^"Love thy neighbor as thyself and thy sickness will 
be of short duration and thy doctor's bill light." 

5^ "The earth is a vast bank of deposit from which the 
inhabitants draw the raw material for their sustenance. 
But avaricious man is rapidly wasting this substance." 



*Editor and publisher of " Fibre and Fabric," Boston. 



lit) THE ART OF LIVING. 

5^ "Food is not to be taken because we like it, for that 
is intemperance, but simply because it is a necessity that 
we should eat to maintain the animal body, remember- 
ing that enough is a feast." 

^ "When a man finds it necessary to stimulate his diges- 
tive organs with condiments it is time to give his stomr 
ach a rest." 

5^ "We should never place ourselves in the position to 
have to cure disease. We should so conduct ourselves 
that we should prevent it." 

^ "No person has the power to save another until he has 
saved himself." 

^ "It costs about seventy-five cents to supply a man with 
his first dollar bottle of patent medicine ! What does it 
cost to prepare the patient's body to make it necessary 
to take it?" 

5^ "Thirst is a disease and he who feeds disease is a 
criminal both in the law of God and man." 

It 

5^ "Many people court disease by continually hashing 
and rehashing past troubles, imaginary and real." 

5^ "The greatest doctor the world has ever produced is 
the one who keeps his patients well. He is the wisest 



PEAELS OF WISDOM. 117 

patient who takes his doctor's advice, for he then has 
become his own physician." 

^ "Where the stomach is man's god there will we find 
rich doctors." 

^ "Each human being is a law within himself. If he 
fails to live that law, he inflicts his own punishment and 
sacrifices what would be his own reward." 

5^ "Some people are never happy unless they are mis- 
erable; hence they get a great deal of comfort out of a 
very little misery." 

5^ "We cannot make good penmanship with either a 
broken or worn-out pen. This applies to every act in 
life." 

5^ "Enough is always a feast. It is not wise to invite 
people to dine with us, then insist that they make hogs 
of themselves." 

5^ "In my eating I seek not what is ^nice' but what is 
necessary to keep the human body in healthy condition- 
What is ^nice' is often destructive." 

^ "It is not a question of what we should eat or when 
we should eat, but we should never think of eating and 
never eat until hunger sounds the warning and then eat 
just what the system requires, and no more, regardless 



118 THE ART OF LIVING. 

of a depraved taste. He who over-persuades the appe- 
tite will pay the penalty." 

^ "The body of man is the temple of God. The soul is 
the doorway through which the spirit enters, hence we 
must live a clean life." 

^ "The spirit never grows old, and in the proper temple 
it is old in the young, and young in the old body." 

^ "If your life is worth preserving on this earth it will 
be preserved until your work is done." 

5^ "Disease cannot enter the human temple unless igno- 
rance opens the door.'' 

^ "Ignorance is the cause of every crime, ever}' ailment, 
every trouble that flesh is heir to and yet man will ever 
persist in and even glory in being ignorant." 

^ " ^There is no new thing under the sun,' and the find- 
ing anything new to us is evidence that we are evo- 
luting out of ignorance." 

^ "There is only one way to reform the world and that 
is for each and every one to begin by reforming them- 
selves, — which will prove a life work to the best of peo- 
ple, — and thus bring up their families properly. Begin 
at home and make sure at least of one individual tlu\t is 
all right, for he who conquers self has conquered the 
world." 



PEARLS OF WISDOM. 119 

^"He who knows his own body ceases to abuse that 
body and will use it as well as he would any other ani- 
mal in which he has an interest. If men and women 
could know how they abuse the temple in which they 
dwell they would stand aghast and make a sharp turn 
to the higher life. Should they see a horse abused as 
badly as they abuse their own animal bodies, they would 
quickly call the humane society to protect the animals." 

5^ "To feed thirst is an unnecessary expense, while the 
punishment for creating thirst comes in the expense of 
impaired health and doctor's bills. When I speak of 
thirst I mean that no liquid of any kind is necessary to 
be taken between meals. I never take it, no matter what 
the weather may be, and am one of the most active busi- 
ness men living. I have no whims, but am describing 
a natural condition in which I live and in which others 
can live." 

^ "Parents who have cultivated an artificial fire in their 
stomachs and try to drown it with liquids, will encour- 
age the same condition in their children. Perhaps 
ninety-nine per cent, of our people are habitual crimi- 
nals against natural law in pandering to stomach desire 
which in their weakness they have allowed to get into 
a demoralized condition." 



EDUCATORS 

*From Horace Fletcher's "• Glutton or Epicure." 



^ "Appetite should be dignified and recognized as a dis- 
tinct sense." 

^ "Study Normal Appetite and heed its invitation. It 
prescribes wisely." 

^ "All that nature requires of man is to supply fuel pre- 
ferred, and therefore prescribed, by Normal Appetite." 

5^ "Nature requires no sacrifices and imposes no penal- 
ties for obeying her beneficent demands." 

^ "The old physiology presupposed disease and glorified 
pathology." 

^ "The new physiology studies Hygiene and assists 
Nature by securing Prevention to avoid the necessity of 
correction and cure." 

5^ "Taste is an evidence of nutrition. While taste lasts 
a necessary process is going on. Taste should therefore 
be carefully studied and understood." 



♦Author of several books published by Herbert S. Stone & Co., 
Chicago. 



EDUCATORS. 1^1 

5^ "Unless a person have a pressing engagement with his 
own funeral, what sense is there in hurrying with his 
meals ?" 

^ "Gluttony imposes upon the body a quantity of matter 
which is underdone ; that is under-prepared ; so that only 
a small portion of it is fitted for assimilation, leaving 
the greater part to ferment within the alimentary canal/' 

5^ "One month of study of Nature's first principle of 
life—nutrition— will convert a pitiable glutton into an 
intelligent epicurean." 

5^ "An indigestible morsel of food is like a runaway 
team in a crowded street." 

^ "Individuals differ greatly in the quantity of the sup- 
ply of the juices of the mouth which are active in saliva- 
tion; so much so, that it is safe to say that no two have 
equal provision." 



id 



.- 'One person may dispose of a morsel of bread in thirty 
mastications, so that the last vestige of it has disap- 
peared by involuntary process into the stomach. An- 
other may require fifty acts of mastication before the 
morsel has disappeared." 

S^"If we masticate— submit to vigorous jaw action- 
all food we take into the mouth, liquid as well as solid, 
until the nutritive part of it disappears into the stomach 



122 THE ART OF LIVING. 

through compulsory or involuntary swallowing, and re- 
move from the mouth all fibrous, insoluble and tasteless 
remainder, we will take into the body, thereby, only that 

which is good for the body." 

« 

^ "If we can devote ten thousand actions of the jaw 
daily to senseless or vicious gossip, what sense is there in 
denying adequate jaw service to the most important 
function of nutrition?" 

^ "Observation proves that you cannot get more starchy 
nutriment into assimilation than salivation prepares, 
gulp though you may, but you can take in a load of dis- 
ease possibilities in trying to enforce or evade proper 
salivation." 

•* 

^ "The message or warning which taste gives in connec- 
tion with eating is that while any taste is left in a 
mouthful of food in process of mastication or sucking, 
it is not yet in a condition to be passed on to the stom- 
ach; and what remains after taste has ceased is not fit 
for the stomach." 

^ "If the herein alleged functions of the sense of taste 
are true the discovery will revolutionize all current ideas 
about life and health possibilities and reorganize econo- 
mies of food supply and woman's work on a basis of 
saving at least two thirds of the present waste. It will 
be found that the actual pleasure of eating derived there- 
from will be greatly increased and that the effect on 
health will be good and immediate.'' 



EDUCATORS. 123 

^ "Take away the dietary causes of disease and Nature 
will immediately begin to repair damages and build a 
more perfect structure." 

^ "Right eating and right food are, then, very impor- 
tant considerations of health as far as the tissues are 
concerned; and as the tissues are themselves the stored 
fuel or food of the brain and the nerve centers, the im- 
portance of perfect nutrition extends to the most vital 
functions and interests of life." 



SOCIAL CHATS WITH MY FRIENDS, THE 
YOUNG HOMEMAKERS. 

Building and Fuhnishixg the Home. 



If one has the choice of selection for a location, let it 
be npon high ground where the drainage will be good. 
Locate the house so that the sun will reach every room 
at some time during the day, and if possible have a small 
sun parlor with a glass roof in the upper story. The 
expense will not be great, and the comfort and luxury 
of it will be appreciated by all. For ventilation, every 
window should open easily at the top and bottom unless 
one can afford more expensive methods. Sleeping rooms 
should be light and have hard wood floors; be plainly 
and harmoniously furnished, without carpets, draperies 
and bric-a-brac; a few pictures on the walls, ornaments 
that are easily kept clean, and as few rugs as possible. 
A large closet for each room with plenty of hooks, a 
shelf above the hooks, and two or three drawers, is quite 
as indispensable as a window. Bath room and plumb- 
ing should be of the best; the living rooms sunny, fur- 
nished for comfort, and floors finished in such a manner 
that one can walk safely over them. There will be no 
closed, musty rooms in a model home. The library, if 
there is one, should contain a cabinet for curios, relics, 
and small treasures instead of having them all over the 
house to be daily cared for. Heavy draperies for win- 
dows and doors should go out of fashion, except in rooms 
little usedj and window shutters are an invitation to 



SOCIAL CHATS. 125 

sunless rooms; flood the rooms with sunshine, and re- 
member the human plants as well as the window plants. 

The dining room should be light and cheerful in tints 
and colors, restful pictures upon the walls, and hard 
wood floors not too highly polished. A few plants in 
the windows, spotless linen, no matter how plain, china 
and silver according to one's means, easy, straight-backed 
chairs, well prepared food and a cheerful family, — what 
more is necessary for comfort? If the room is used for 
other purposes, cover the table — if you keep it set — with 
something impervious to dust. A roomy china closet 
and drawers for table linen are indispensable. 

The kitchen should be a pleasant room of medium 
size, so constructed and situated as to save all the work 
and steps possible. The sink and stove should be high 
enough to enable one to work with ease without stoop- 
ing. The pantry should be large enough to hold all 
cooking utensils, and light enough to do all necessary 
work. It should have an inclosure for flour, and 
drawers for kitchen linen and other essential things. 
Drawers lined with non-absorbent material would be ex- 
cellent for bread and food that needs to be kept fresh, 
and would be less care than bread boxes or Jars. Every 
cupboard should be concealed with doors — a lower sec- 
tion for large utensils and other necessities, above them 
shelves no higher than one can reach — and when closed 
everything is protected from dust, flies, mice, and in- 
sects. The pantry is thus a practical room, and the 
dreaded semi-yearly cleaning is nearly abolished by 
daily order and care. 

The cellar should be airy and have cemented walls 



126 THE ART OF LIVING. 

and floors, and be well provided with cupboards^. With 
snch a cellar there will be no excuse for dirt, rubbish, 
foul air and death traps concealed therein. Eooms for 
wood and coal should be on a level with the kitchen, go 
that one can get them without going up and down two or 
three steps many times a day. 

The modern house is heated by hot air, steam, or elec- 
tricity. The heating should extend to every room in the 
house, even to the kitchen, as this would economize fuel 
and work, and one would be able to use gas, gasoline, or 
kerosene even in winter, and a stove as a convenience 
now and then until electricity comes into more general 
use. 



SANITATION IN THE HOME. 

" Cleanliness is next to Godliness." 

^ Eternal vigilance is the price of order, purity, health, 
and happiness in the home. 

^ Fruits, foods, drink or medicine should not be used 
if exposed to the air of an invalid's room. All dishes 
should be washed by themselves. Leave nothing odor- 
ous or unsightly exposed, and keep the air pure with dis- 
infectants, not forgetting outside air and sunlight, the 
best of purifiers. Charcoal and fresh lime are excellent, 
and there are many odorless disinfectants. 

^ Fresh water standing in bowl or pitcher is an excel- 
lent disinfectant, but it must not be used after absorb- 
ing odors, neither drunk after standing in a sleeping 
room over night. 

* 

^ Do not use for cooking or drinking the first water 
drawn from the pipes in the morning, neither water that 
has stood in the teakettle over night. 

^ Pour hot water down the sink every day and twice a 
week a strong solution of sal soda in a gallon of hot 
water. 

5^ To fumigate a room, put a few red hot coals in an 
empty coal hod or iron kettle and sprinkle a little sul- 



128 THE ART OF LIVING. 

phur over them ; set it in the room and let it remain for 
several hours, with the doors and windows closed. This 
should often be done in lodging houses, and in rooms 
where smokers enjoy themselves. 

« 

^ Keep kerosene stoves and lamps clean and burners 
bright ; they will then be odorless. In reading have the 
light back of you, plenty of air in the room, and never 
turn the wick partly down and leave it burning to poison 
the air. 

^ Keep food covered and in a cool place. It is a waste 
to leave it standing exposed to dust and odors. Milk, 
cream, butter, meat, and cooked fruit are all sensitive 
and soon spoil or become unfit for the table. 

^ Instead of drinking ice water, put water in glass jars 
or bottles and cool in the refrigerator. 

5^ Look so carefully and so often into the condition of 
the wood box, the sink and under it, under the refrigera- 
tor and inside of it, the corners of cupboards, bread and 
cake boxes, that no death traps be therein concealed. 
Water-closets, sinks, cesspools, drains, and cellars need 
special attention at all times. 

5^ There is death concealed in many a kiss given to 
infants and young children. Lip-kissing by those who 
use tobacco or are diseased is decidedly unsanitary. 



SANITATION IN THE HOME. 1^9 

Greeting with a kiss, especially in public places, should 
become obsolete. 

5^ Fruits and meats that have been kept on ice spoil more 
rapidly than those which have not been on the ice. Look 
over baskets of soft fruit, remove the decayed, then 
spread on plates and set in a cool place. 

5^ Vegetables uncovered in the refrigerator will spoil 
the taste of milk and butter. 



5^ Drink with the lips inside the cup or glass if obliged 
to drink after another. Provide your own cup in trav- 
eling, and drink as little as possible when on a journey, 
and never feed a child with your spoon. 

5^ The deadly germ is found in many a dishcloth and 
sink brush, and only cremation will destroy it. 

5i When diphtheria, typhoid fever, and malaria abound, 
look carefully over your own personal temple, then make 
a search of the house inside and out ; then it will be wise 
to look after the environments of the milkman. 

5^ Permit no collection of rubbish near the house, and 
pld tin cans, bottles, broken dishes, boxes and barrels 
and any other old, worthless thing are not ornamental in 
the backvard. 



130 THE ART OF LIVING. 

5^ Did you ever open the door to a sleeping room, and 
close it without entering, or hold your breath while 
opening a window ? Ventilate during the night. 

5^ Did you ever call on an invalid, and find the room 
so hot and close that you could not sit down, and took 
your departure as soon as courtesy would permit ? Speak 
a humane word. 

•* 

^ The physician to the Czar of Eussia visited him on 
his deathbed, which was surrounded by the Czarina and 
other members of the family. On entering the room he 
ignored the presence of the exalted individuals, and 
loudly demanded air, remarking in tones of deep an- 
guish, "What an atmosphere ! It is disease-breeding. 
And in this air you allow Eussia's little father to lie !" 
And then, without more ado, he roughly tore down the 
curtains and opened windows. 

^ If one would enjoy refreshing sleep with no danger 
of disturbing others, then each one, from the infant to 
the centenarian, should occupy crib, cot, couch, or bed 
by one's self. This is the sanitary and healthful de- 
mand. All girls and boys like their own bed, their 
own things, and, if possible, their own room, and this 
feeling of ownership will induce to lifelong habits of 
neatness and order ; and the parents should see that good 
ventilation is secured at all times. Youth and age should 
not occupy the same bed, neither the sick and the well, 
and these points cannot be too strongly emphasized. 
The emanations from body and breath are often the 



SAKITATI02f IN THE HOME. 131 

cause of illness, and create that tired, exhausted 
feeling so common in the morning. Many a wife has 
become a nervous wreck by living, and especially sleep- 
ing, with a tobacco-saturated husband. Because people 
marry is no reason why as a bride the girl should give 
.up her "own room," or the groom share it with her. 
We are dependent one upon the other, but are becoming' 
more individualized, and the idea of ownership is being 
supplanted by comradeship and companionship. In 
these modern days of improvement if they each occupy 
separate beds or apartments, the outside world will not 
consider them victims for the divorce courts. 

^ Has it ever occurred to you that the very walls, ceil- 
ings, draperies, and bedding become saturated with the 
emanations from the bodies of the constant occupants? 
Even the thoughts they think, the words they speak, the 
deeds they do, all contribute to the invisible substance 
in their rooms. 

^ There are people so sensitive they cannot sleep in 
certain rooms or beds, although there seems no visible 
reason why they should not. They are not "whimsical,'^ 
nor given to "notions," but have such a development of 
spiritual sense they feel things that others fail to recog- 
nize. "Unfortunate," you may say, but the farther we 
grow away from the crude and gross the more the higher 
sense becomes developed, and toward this the race is 
advancing. 

^ Every member of the family should use his or her 



132 THE ART OF LIVING. 

own towel, and children should be taught that diseases 
may be communicated through the promiscuous use of 
towels. 

* 

^ Towels and handkerchiefs used by persons having 
skin, e3^e, nasal, or special ailments should be put dry 
into a kettle of cold water with plenty of soap, a table- 
spoonful or more of kerosene and boiled until perfectly 
clean — the germs killed. They may then be scalded in 
clean water, well rinsed, and dried in the sun. The 
less bluing used in any clothing the better. 



^ Every one should have his or her own brush and comb, 
and, as a rule, be as careful about using another's as 
about using a toothbrush. Keep all toilet articles clean 
with ammonia or soda water and away from dust. 

^If choice lies between a handsome carpet and a good 
mattress, choose the mattress. We get our rest for the 
coming day's work while in bed and it should be com- 
fortable. After a few 3^ears' service have it made over, 
and it will be as good as new if the material is good. 
Keep the bed clothing clean, and when airing never 
allow it to sweep the floor and gather dust. 

^ Use a wet finger or sponge for sealing and putting on 
letter stamps. The mouth is not the place to hold 
money, and in counting bills use a damp sponge for the 
fingers, and wash the hands after handling money. One 



SANITATION" IK THE HOME. 133 

cannot be too careful in this matter in opening a large 
mail and taking money from letters. 

5^ If you would have the atmosphere pure about you^ 
don't have too many cats and dogs in the house. They 
sometimes bring diseases to the children, and should 
never be kissed by them, for it is uncertain in what com- 
pany they have been. Above all things feed them on 
clean dishes of their own, and train them to keep out 
of the dining room and out of the cook's way. 

^ The value of fresh air from attic to cellar, sunlight, 
disinfectants, and fumigation cannot be overestimated 
as means of sanitation and health in the home and 
everywhere we congregate or travel. 

^ Another thing is thought sanitation. Above all things 
remember that fear-thought and worry-thought — twin 
monstrosities of the ancient father Heredity and his 
numerous offspring — are more deadly than work. Too 
many of us live in the atmosphere of "afraid." We fear 
to do this or that, and are afraid of things that never 
happen. We fret and worry over matters we fear may 
not turn out just right, or that never "come to pass." 
Suppose they do come — has the worry done the least 
good ? No, but it has opened the door wider and wider 
each hour to admit worry thoughts sent out by others 
that are sure to call at the first invitation, and take up 
their abode with your thoughts. They are like "tramps," 
who, if not repulsed at your door, give the signal that 



134 THE ART OF LIVING. 

brings others to the same place, and sets you to wonder- 
ing how it happens that 3'ou are the favored one. But 
it is no happening. There are no accidents in this world, 
for it is a world of order and conservation of power by 
concentration of effort for the accomplishment of a pur- 
pose with a lesson of wisdom for us to discover. But 
how weak or strong the purpose depends upon the indi- 
vidual sending out the invisible lines of thought. That 
this has much to do with the Art of Living in its phys- 
ical and spiritual sense no one will dispute. If we think 
unclean, unkind thoughts of another, thoughts of envy, 
hate, jealousy, and all manner of evil, they are a means of 
infection to ourselves through the power of attraction.. 
Many a mother has killed her babe because of thoughts 
that poisoned its dinner. Grief and anger are deadly; 
joy and love bless and expand. The great negative 
world of ill health, misery and wretchedness, envy, 
hatred and mischief-making gossip is mingled with the 
great positive world of health and power, of goodness 
and love, of hope and cheer and life, and it is for us to 
say what shall be our contribution to this invisible 
thought world and what we shall invite from it to abide 
with us. The youth should be taught that the spirit of 
the words we speak, the thoughts we think, be they pure 
or impure, float out into space meeting others of the 
same nature on their way. They go forth to bless or 
curse, to purify or make unclean, to touch with inspira- 
tion's pen that which uplifts the race, or feed the flame 
that downward tends. 



THE COOK STOVE AND THE FIRE. 



There is nothing more troublesome to a cook than a 
stove oven with uncertain qualities for baking. Hav- 
ing a good stove, keep the inside mechanism clean, top 
and bottom, under side of covers, and ashes emptied 
daily. A good stove or range, with care, will last almost 
indefinitely, while a poor one with careless treatment 
will be useless in a few years. A stove well polished 
twice a year will retain its luster, except upon the top, 
and many prefer a daily washing with soapsuds, with 
only an occasional blacking. To make a fire, open the 
drafts, put the lightest kindling material in the bottom 
of fire box, over that a little heavier material, then 
light it with a match, and in a few moments a 
little larger wood, or two or three shovels of coal 
at a time may be carefully added to the fire; and 
when well started, close the oven damper, and if 
you wish to heat the oven leave the drafts open, 
but save the fuel by closing them when little heat is re- 
quired. With this care you may expect a good fire to 
give a well prepared oven for baking. If you burn wood, 
the fire must be carefully attended to and not allowed 
to get low when food is ready for the oven nor when it 
is half done. Lay the wood loosely on the fire ; do not 
jar the stove when putting it in, nor close the oven doors 
with a bang when baking. Dough when rising is very 
sensitive and often falls through careless treatment. 



136 THE ART OF LIVING. 

Keep the lower part of the fire box well cleaned of 
ashes and cinders, as heat is generated from below; re- 
plenish carefully with a little coal now and then instead 
of a large quantity at one time ; too much does no good, 
and warps and ruins the stove. 

If a coal fire gets low, use a little wood before replen- 
ishing with coal. Empty and wash the reservoir once 
a week, and do not take water from it for cooking pur- 
poses. Keep the teakettle clean inside and outside and 
full of water when cooking. The heavy stove ware 
should not be kept under the sink. Have unbreakable 
pans and dishes, strong spoons, steel knives and two- 
tined forks to use about the stove and in cooking, as it 
is poor economy to use china and silver about the kitchen 
work. 



SAVE THE BODY AND USE THE BRAIN. 



A great necessity in every home is a clear, active 
brain in a healthy body, that can plan work and execute 
it with the least labor and the fewest steps. Many peo- 
ple go about their work in an aimless sort of way with- 
out a plan, and never seem to think of but one thing at 
a time. Hence many false moves are made, thousands 
of steps taken amounting to miles of needless travel, 
just for want of thought and plan that should precede 
action. The housewife should conserve her energies in 
ever}'' way, learn to save and not make needless work for 
herself; then she may execute with skill and without 
friction. If about to bake, get everything so near at 
hand that you have only to reach out or turn around to 
get what you need for the article being made. Make the 
same dish and spoon useful for several things if you 
have much to cook. Have plenty of wood or coal and 
hot and cold water at hand before you begin to cook. 
Clean holders and towels are also a necessity to use about 
the stove. Asbestos mats and paper are durable and 
will prevent food from burning. Sit down all you 
can while at work; there are many things we do while 
standing, when if sitting in a chair of suitable height 
with a rest for the feet would relieve weary muscles. If 
obliged to work in one position until nerves and muscles 
remind you of weariness, heed their voice and relieve the 
tension by a rest of a few moments, or by going to the 



138 THE ART OF LIVING. 

door, breathing slowly and deepl}^ and passively shaking 
■every nerve, muscle, and joint into harmony. 

Do not fret and worry over the mistakes you may have 
made, because there is a right and perfect way and you 
will find it. 

The kitchen should be orderly enough to admit a vis- 
itor at any reasonable hour, and the queen therein 
should be tidy at all times even in a five cent print. Why 
not be as neatly clad for her work as is one in any other 
profession? Why not feel the dignity of her position 
as much as if she were a teacher ? The worker imparts 
dignity to and makes honorable the work, no matter what 
it may be, if conducted with care and personal interest. 

Dress according to your occupation. To protect dress, 
hands, and hair wear a large apron, loose gloves and cap 
when necessary. There is no excuse for unrepaired 
shoes or other clothing, no excuse for skirts that touch 
the floor at every step and compel you to lift them in 
going upstairs. The time has been when one was 
deemed almost unsexed in a short skirt, but that day is 
away in the past, and women nowadays are not only 
telling what they would like for ease and comfort but 
are doing what seems best in that direction. And it is 
best to wear skirts to the tops of the boots, at least in all 
work about the house and in tlie garden, as well as on 
the wheel and mountain excursions. The change in 
length of skirts will produce freedom of body and soul 
that every woman will appreciate. It is a great accom- 
plishment to have a place for everything and everything 
in its place. Then work will be done without hurry or 
worry, and with the least possible noise. With dis- 



SAVE THE BODY AND USE THE BEAIN. 139 

order, confusion, untidiness and a lack of plan, nothing 
is ^^on time,^^ the housewife absorbs the conditions she 
creates, and the house is merely a shelter without a 
serene, practical soul that makes it a true liome. 



WHAT SHALL WE DO? 



The cooking department of domestic life has become 
so burdensome in many homes that entire families have 
adopted boarding house or hotel life, and thus reduce 
the expense and care of having a cook. If ever the plans 
of co-operative domestic organization ^practically mate- 
rialize, this will be a way out for many, especially those 
who are dependent upon three elaborate meals a day. 
But there are thousands of families who have already 
reduced their table service to such simplicity that but 
one full meal is in daily demand, and this custom is rap- 
idly increasing. This one meal is composed of the sub- 
stantial foods that are necessary to keep the human 
temple in the best condition. Pursuing this plan it is 
not necessary to pay special attention to a certain line 
of food, neither do penance to keep in the best of health. 
The regulation cook is now dispensed with in many a 
home where she has been a necessity. 

The question is often asked, Shall we teach our boys 
as well as our girls to cook and do housework? Cer- 
tainly this should be done if possible. Every boy and 
girl of fourteen years should learn to make and bake 
good bread of all kinds, prepare, cook and serve a nutri- 
tious dinner, and these should be regarded as praise- 
worthy accomplishments. This knowing how to do things 
makes them independent at all times, and the}^ are never 
at a disadvantage when thrown upon their own resources 



WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 141 

for food supplies and their preparation, for they should 
be as competent to select and purchase as to cook and 
serve. The vexed servant question will remain an un- 
solved problem so long as the housewife is at the mercyof 
an irresponsible cook, and we shall be surrounded by un- 
desirable and vicious social and physical conditions so 
long as the food for humanity is manipulated by the 
prevailing type of kitchen queen. The future cook will 
be an educated person, imparting dignity to a vocation 
which will be considered as respectable as it is respon- 
sible. Her office will be quite as exalted as though she 
were engaged in law, politics, art, music or the ministry. 
And why not, when we realize that she occupies the most 
responsible position in our homes, and that upon the 
food she prepares depends the "weal or woe" of homes 
and nations ? Our physical, moral, and social health is 
dependent upon what and how we eat and drink; hence 
the presiding genius in the laboratory of the home should 
be a specimen of health and good nature, care, prudence, 
judgment and with a reliable conscience. Then health, 
strength, and plump, rosy-cheeked children will be quite 
the fashion, nerves quivering upon the outside will be 
duly clothed with substantial flesh, and "T am so nerv- 
ous" will be heard no more. 

The following words from the pen of the brilliant 
Kate Field, taken from an address to a class of girl grad- 
uates, may be an inspiration to other girls : — 

"Cooking is the alphabet of your happiness. I do 
not hesitate to affirm that this great Eepublic, great as 
her necessities may be in many directions, needs cooks 
more than all else. The salvation of the national stom- 



142 THE ART OF LIVING. 

aeh depends upon them. We are a nation of dyspeptics 
because we eat the wrong foods, badly cooked, and be- 
cause our women do not know the rudiments of their 
business and resign their kitchens into the hands of in- 
competent servants of whom they are afraid. Be cooks 
first and anything you please afterwards." 



THE CARE OF FOOD. 



Food that is left from a meal should be put away in 
clean dishes. If there are whole slices of bread, lay 
them firmly together and they will keep fresh. Keep 
all food away from heat, light, and dust, and never leave 
anything exposed in the pantry or elsewhere to invite 
insects, the action of germs, or the absorption of odors. 
The flavor of food is very easily deteriorated in this way. 
Look closely into the condition of bread and cake boxes, 
wash and scald them often, and allow no crumbs and 
pieces to mould, as they will very quickly in hot weather. 
To freshen rolls, biscuit or gems, dip in cold water, put 
in a pan, cover with another pan, and set in the oven to 
heat through. To freshen bread when two or three days 
old, put the whole loaf into the steamer and steam 
through, or dip in cold water, put in the bread pan, 
cover with another pan, and stand in the oven until 
heated through; either way the bread is like new. If 
you have half slices of bread, biscuit, gems or bread of 
any kind, toast it crispy in the oven, grind in the food 
chopper, then you have "rusk'' or "granola" equal in 
nutrition to any you can buy. 



CLEARING THE TABLE AND DISH WASHING. 



After the food has been removed and cared for, pick 
up the dishes and free them from all remnants of food, 
and pile them np in an orderly manner ready for wash- 
ing. Brush the table, and, if you keep it set all the 
time, put everything in its proper place, and be sure that 
all are clean. Prepare your pan of hot water with a 
little ammonia or soap, and wash, rinse, and wipe the 
glass and silver with clean linen free from lint. Handle 
all dishes with care if you expect them to do good serv- 
ice. Next wash cups and saucers, small dishes, plates, 
etc., using more soap if necessary and change the water 
if there are many dishes. Einse in hot water by setting 
them in a pan in such a way that the inside of all will 
be rinsed, or dip them in hot water and put in a drainer 
over which a clean towel has been spread. Tea and 
coffee pots if used should be well washed by themselves, 
rinsed with hot water and dried. . All kitchen utensils 
should be washed and rinsed with as much care as the 
china, using different dish mops and towels for them. 
Wash, scald, and dry in the sun, if possible, all dish- 
cloths, mops and towels. These things tilled with deadly 
microbes have been the cause of fevers and death. 



ECONOMY IN THE FOOD SUPPLIES. 



The struggle for existence has always been a problem, 
and in these later years when combines and trusts of 
many kinds are thrust upon us, resulting in strikes, 
mobs, violence, and poverty, the solution of the problem 
becomes a serious matter. But when everything takes a 
bound upward in price we need not be alarmed. We 
can afford to live and live well if only we learn how, no 
matter what prices rule the market. Take a careful in- 
ventory of former supplies and see how many eggs, how 
many pounds of sugar, and butter, how much sweet 
food, spices, milk, tea, coffee, cocoa, and chocolate can 
be dispensed with. Perhaps also tobacco, cigars, drinks, 
ices, bakery trifles, and drugs may be among the list. 
'^But nothing is left when these are taken away," you 
exclaim. "Life would not be worth living." 

Let us look into the matter. The above mentioned 
things are mostly additions to the family wants, that to 
a really temperate liver — one who has studied the Art 
of Living not for the economy of it but to live — are 
deemed superfluous. Let us see what there is left : meat, 
vegetables, fruits and grains, all substantial nutrients 
and when in suitable combination what more do we 
need? Even meat may be entirely dispensed with, or, 
if not, economy will make one dollar go as far as two or 
three dollars formerly did. A small piece of meat will 



146 ECONOMY IN^ THE FOOD SUPPLIES. 

give flavor to food and the fiber is then worthless. No- 
substitutes need be sought should such change be made. 
Corn, wheat, oats, beans, peas, and other vegetables 
would be ample in variety for daily changes even with- 
out fresh fruits, which are more expensive in every way 
than anything except meat, as there is nothing but the 
juice of them fit for the stomach, and taste calls for 
that only for the flavor. Economy will purchase figs, 
dates, prunes, raisins, that furnish their own sugar, are 
very nutritious, and if too sweet lemon juice will make 
a salad of them. In them are the saving of made des- 
serts and, used as a first course, there would be no temp- 
tation to overeat or even to call for them very often. 
The expense would be but a mere trifle as compared with 
former desserts, even with a few nuts, if meat was not 
eaten. Economy would purchase flour by the barrel or 
half barrel, and cereals in bulk at three or four cents a 
pound instead of gilt-edged packages costing three or 
four times as much per pound. In a large family or 
even a small one in cold weather the vegetable supplies- 
of standard kinds would be purchased by the busheL 
Fortunes are squandered by habits of waste in purchas- 
ing the necessities of life. Economy for health's sake 
drinks nature's own aqua without additions. When this 
pure, sparkling liquid requires coloring it should be for 
medicinal uses. Milk is not necessary except for young 
children without teeth. When cutting down the super- 
fluous expense of food supplies, do not forget the saving 
in fuel, and woman's work. Each of these items will 
also be greatly diminished when you have learned that 
the greatest economy healthwise is to so make practical 



ECONOMY IN THE FOOD SUPPLIES. 147 

the Art of Living that the first and third meals of the 
day will be reduced to a cipher, or to bread and fruit, 
and but one good, substantial meal a day is to be cooked 
and eaten. 

It must be remembered that in many families suffi- 
cient is wasted to feed from one to three persons during 
a year, from being spoiled in cooking, thrown away 
after a meal, or fed to an army of cats and dogs that the 
poor always have with them. It is a little leakage here 
and there that depletes the family purse and causes 
poverty and hard times where plenty should abound. 



DRINKS. 



Pure water is the universal beverage of all creation 
except man — he alone improves(?) by coloring and 
flavoring it. Tea and coffee are medicines and no more 
necessary than wine, whisky, or champagne. But there 
is great fascination surrounding the tea and coffee pot, 
and the man who takes his morning dram to brace him- 
self for his daily toil is just as logical as the man or 
woman who takes tea or coffee for the same purpose. 
Many people declare they are "so faint" or "good for 
nothing" that it is impossible to do a good day's work, 
to prepare a sermon, a lecture, or address an audience 
except under the lash of a strong cup of their favorite 
beverage. They are proceeding along the same path the 
dram drinker goes, but one bears the stamp of respect- 
ability, while in the other it is called a vice. It is no 
wonder there is an increasing army of tea and coffee 
inebriates, and that children are born delicate and nerv- 
ous when these things form a part of the soil in which 
they are grown. We need not marvel that panaceas 
with an alcoholic base, and narcotics and stimulants are 
plentiful upon the dressing tables of hosts of nerve- 
shattered women. And these things will continue so 
long as we drink poisoned water, and deluge luscious 
fruits with wine, beer, brandy, rum and gin from a wine- 
glassful to a quart; even watermelon is not considered 
complete by some writers without a glass of wine being 



DEIl^KS. 149 

added to it just before serving. Under the head of 
^^safe summer delicacies" we also find a quart of the best 
brandy or Jamaica rum to be added to a quart of fruit 
juice. We read of a delicate tea cake baked and then 
"all the brandy poured over it that it will absorb.'' And 
these recipes and thousands more of like color are found 
in popular magazines and papers, otherwise of the best 
quality, that enter our homes every year. Saloons and 
other gilded palaces will be necessary until we strike 
at the root of the tree in our own homes at the family 
table; then we may expect "a white life for two." 



SUNDAY DINNERS. 



"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the 
Sabbath." A day of rest, recuperation of body and soul 
after the six days of toil. Custom has made it anything 
but a day of rest, and to many it is the most wearisome 
day in the week. But this need not be if only our good 
sense would come to the rescue. Most people have their 
meals on Sunday out of the regular order, and this is 
responsible for many a headache and "blue Monday.^' 
Many people are only at home to dinner on Sunday and 
they feel like stuffing themselves with extras. Nuts, pop- 
corn, sweetmeats, fruits, and candy are indulged in by 
frequent nibbles through the day. The late breakfast 
is followed by a big dinner in the middle of the after- 
noon. The "fatted calf" is brought forth in various 
tempting forms and the god Gluttony reigns on Sunday 
if on no other day in the week. A late supper or visit to 
the pantry completes the Sunday feeding that is such 
a luxury (?). No matter about subsequent ill feelings 
or temper all awry, the process will be repeated and 
relief obtained by doses of "sure cures," until there 
comes a time when even these much vaunted panaceas 
become powerless. 

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God ? If any 
man defile the temple of God him shall God destroy, for 
the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Can 
anything be more plain, and is anything more true, 
than that if the human temple is abused, it is destroyed 



SUJS^DAY DINKEKS 151 

before its time through disobedience to the law of con- 
servation? Give a little heed to physical and spiritual 
health, morals and growth on Sunday, and it will be 
much easier to obey the law of living through the week. 
If one expects to be spiritually benefited by the inspira- 
tion of a sermon, let him bear in mind that no matter 
how grand the sermon may be on paper, the minister in 
the pulpit must receive inspiration from the Divine 
within those in the pews to render his words effective. 
No additional power can be received if the hearers sit 
there with a workingman' s dinner of pork, beans, brown 
bread, coffee and other et ceteras stored away in their 
anatomy, while they wink and pinch themselves to keep 
awake. 

Let us be humane to ourselves. Take the lightest 
possible breakfast, if any, on Sunday, have a good dinner 
as near the usual hour as possible, but cook all or nearly 
all of it on Saturday. There are plenty of foods that, 
if unseasoned, will be just as good warmed and seasoned 
if cooked the previous day. A still easier plan would 
be to live on bread and fruits or make the day one of 
fasting, which would be far better than unwise feasting. 
These methods are observed in many homes, and Sunday 
is really made a day of rest for all; a day to become 
more thoroughly acquainted with one's family and come 
in closer touch and tune with the Infinite, and thus take 
another step in the true Art of Living. 



COURTESY AT HOME. 

"There is nothing within a man's sphere that costs so little and 
brings such large returns as the words ' Thank you.' " — Wade. 

Where the Art of Living prevails there will be due 
consideration for each member of the home; courtesy 
will be shown to all, even the helpers will be treated with 
respect. Children carry into the outside world their 
impressions of home. Obedience must be maintained 
if one expects order and system, and the woman at the 
helm is wise if she can secure it without friction. She 
will neither criticise nor correct except in private unless 
obliged to do so, and never before children. Home will 
be so attractive that children will not go astray, neither 
be in haste to leave it and establish one of their own. 
Each room will bear its own special charm, and the 
mother will not say, "It does not matter what room John 
has, he is only a boy." But "only a boy" is the embryo 
man with surprising possibilities for greatness and 
goodness, even gentle care and protection for you, 
mothers. And "only a girl" is the "miniature woman" 
to grow and fill the place she makes for herself, and the 
"two shall be one" that in due time will create men and 
women from the web of their lives. The innocent babe 
in your arms from this moment is unconsciously pre- 
paring for the continuation of the race. A wise mother 
will see that the elements for making the best of soil 
are woven into the child's life, and when he steps out 
into the world alone he will know how to live and what 
life means. 



THE PERILS IN FAT AND HOW TO 
DISPOSE OF IT. 



Thousands of people are too fat and a great burden 
to themselves; and, besides, they are like an almost 
shapeless mass of clay. This "fat" is sometimes bloat, 
gas, or soft, spongy material, instead of real solid fat 
that fills every cell. Think of it, — carrying around from 
three to five inches of solid fat in the outside covering 
of the framework of the temple, and every organ inside 
completely smothered with this surplus! No wonder 
such people are "so short-breathed" that they puff and 
pant and blow upon little extra exertion! For several 
years this surplus burden has been accumulating, and 
how to get rid of it is the question. It is a kind of pre- 
digested food, and is "all ready for absorption" just as 
soon as you cease its accumulation, and when you have 
lived upon this food for a month or two, or until from 
fifty to one hundred pounds of it has disappeared, you 
will have learned the Art of Living to avoid such accu- 
mulations in the future. The easiest and safest possible 
way to reduce the body to its former graceful and 
symmetrical proportions is to begin the work by 
omitting the breakfast for a week or two, lessening 
the supper until you can easily dispense with that. 
By this time the burden will have become lighter, 
and it will be little discomfort to forget the dinner 
for a few days at a time or weeks if need be until 



154 THE ART OF LIVING. 

the desired point is reached. During this time sat- 
isfy thirst with plain water, or flavor it with fruit 
juice now and then without sugar. Do whatever you 
feel inclined to do. Work, walk, ride, rest, sleep or any 
reasonable thing may be indulged, and if you have never 
read anything upon this subject do so now, and you may 
in this way be doing home missionary work in the com- 
mon sense method of living and working out one's own 
salvation. There is no work or worry in this simple 
method over what you shall do, what you shall eat, 
drink, or take, but there may be a little expense involved 
in remodeling the clothing to fit the new person, when 
the new temple is complete. 



WORK AND DUTY. 



"How can I get up and do the day's work that lies 
before me?" The weary eyelids open, suddenly the 
"must do it" comes to the front, the soul is aroused and 
the work is done. And thus day after day, year after 
jear, the routine work goes on, until there comes a day 
when "must do" is powerless and "As thy day is so shall 
thy strength be" stands for naught, and the soul lays 
aside the old garment for the new. Work and duty are 
common to all. We think we are living when we crowd 
the work of two days into one in the line of duty, labor, 
or pleasure; when we strain every nerve and muscle to 
the utmost limit after something to gratify our desire for 
anything that appeals to us. After all, what are these 
things we struggle after, that perhaps cost the body five 
years of service in two, to say nothing of the crushing 
weight upon the aspiring soul ? What is duty ? Some- 
thing we owe to self or to other selves? How many 
there are who consider it their duty to work for others 
until life holds nothing for them hardly worth an effort 
io continue it ! They perhaps leave a lucrative business, 
or refuse to retain a hard-earned position that they may 
care for some one, when another educated for and need- 
ing the position could fill it as well or better than they. 
Faithful souls going down to physical death under the 
mistaken idea of duty to others, that abuses self and sets 
aside their own aspirations and ideals that tend to com- 
pleteness of life. To your own spirit be true, and do 
the work that is yours, for none can do it as well. 



BRIEF REFRESHMENTS FOR LEISURE 
MOMENTS. 

"Be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams — the more they are 
condensed the deeper they burn."— Southey. 

^ Sickness is man's invention, and a most undesirable 
and profitless expense to himself in every way. 

^ The learned professions live and thrive financially 
upon the sins, miseries, and ill health of the race. 

5^ Look at life as we may, and think how independent we 
are, yet we employ other people to take care of our 
bodies when we should do it ourselves. 

5^ "Heart failure'' is a much abused phrase ; "stomach 
failure" would be a more correct verdict. 

S^ Thousands of people supply our artificial wants — not 
needs — in various ways and to them we ascribe much 
of the ill health and untimely death of those whom they 
serve. 

5^ Men display scientific sense in feeding their cattle and 
other stock, for the death of fine animals means finan- 
cial loss. 



BEIEF KEFRESHMEKTS FOK LEISURE MOMEis"TS. 157 

^Were a financial value set upon the human animal 
we might realize the importance of scientifically feeding 
our offspring. We call them priceless, yet they come up 
"haphazard," eat when they please, and if appetite fails, 
the mother coaxes and indulges to a still further de- 
structive end. 

^ The human race are more unjust, unkind, inhuman 
to themselves than to any other living creature. 

^ The human animal is a great scavenger. He con- 
sumes everything good, bad and indifferent, after being 
doctored in some mysterious way for his eating. The 
lower he is the more crude his tastes. The more civilized 
the more refined in that direction, and nothing that 
money or service can purchase is denied him. 

^ The lower animals refuse and pass by the things that 
man will eat, chew and drink. Indeed, instinct in them 
often appears superior to reason in man. 



^ We shall need doctors to prescribe for us, just as long 
as we cook from the instructions given in papers and 
magazines of all classes, and the cookbooks that flood 
the literary world to-day. They are an invitation to 
expense, labor, nerve-wearing worry, and an inducement 
to stuff the stomach, and later send for the doctor to be 
relieved of the results of the stuffing process. 



158 THE ART OF LIVING. 

^ Common sense cooking recipes rarely appeal to the 
vitiated taste of those who daily demand something new. 

^ The best natured families are those fed upon plain,, 
wholesome food. Even the thought of "poor health"' 
cannot find standing room in such a family. 

5^ If children are cross, fretful, half sick, and out of 
school with headaches and weariness, try the change of 
health-producing food at regular intervals only when 
hungry. 

5^ My sympathies extend to those who think they must 
prepare cold weather foods and enticing cooling dainties 
in hot weather. 

5^ Who are the victims of sunstrokes, summer ailings, 
and various forms of sudden deaths ? Men and children 
usually, and they are fed by the cooks. And how they 
rack their brains and consult the cookbooks to find some- 
thing new, or that will be a surprise, while the surprise 
costs them an hour or more perhaps of labor on a hot 
day, and nothing to show for it except a new dainty that 
"tasted good" even when they were "too full to eat an- 
other mouthful" ! Then how they perspire and puff 
and blow, and condemn the weather, and the dear chil- 
dren droop around in discomfort that no one except the 
doctor can account for. 

^If a person dies while under the regime of cooking 
dispensations, we are very gravely told that "in the 



BRIEF REFRESHMENTS FOR LEISURE MOMENTS. 159 

course of Divine Providence, the Almighty has seen fit 
to remove " 

5^ "Eat to live'' and decrease the doctor's, nurses', un- 
dertakers' and florists' bills. Truly, ignorance is the 
curse and sin of the race. 

^ Youth will set her seal upon a wrinkled face if one is 
cheerful and properly fed. 

^ If one must eat in five minutes that which should 
take five times as long, better wait until one has more 
time. 

5^ Never eat, nor hire a child to eat, that which you do 
not relish simply because some one tells you it is 
"healthy." Many a dyspeptic has been made by eating 
"healthy" food. 

^ Make changes in food gradually, and when flesh food 
is abandoned use whole wheat instead of white bread. 

^ Eat less in summer and it will be easier to avoid the 
soda fountains and other pitfalls by the wayside to cool 
off with — they are a delusion and a snare. 

^Take an inventory now and then of the things done 
in the home every day and surprise yourself by counting 
out the really unnecessary amount of cooking done. 



160 THE ART OF LIVING. 

^ Through custom the winter season has become a spe- 
cial hotbed breeder of disease. Turn where we will, 
there meet us teas, lunches, refreshments, receptions, 
dinners, suppers, and banquets. 

^ Our own lack of wisdom has fdled "the house beau- 
tiful" with useless refuse resulting in disease. The best 
remedy is to cleanse the house, rest from food and work 
a few days, then "Go and sin no more." 

5^ I have no desire to reform people or cut them over by 
my 'patt&rn. To reform is too expensive, to improve is 
the wiser plan. 

^ To improve others we cannot. It is a matter of indi- 
vidual work and growth, that develops health and beauty 
from within outward. To assist in this work for others, 
we must make ourselves as nearly as possible ivhat we 
would like others to become, after their otvn model, not 
ours, for no two are ever cut from exactly the same 
pattern. 

^"Though we travel the world over to find the beau- 
tiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." — 
Emerson. 

5^ If any class of women need recreation it is the busy 
home-makers, who have not yet been able to find mechan- 
ical substitutes for themselves and doubtless never will 
through any sort of invention. Then as the head of the 



BRIEF REFRESHMENTS FOR LEISURE MOMEI^TS. 161 

domestic household may she issue a new edict which 
shall read, ''We are no longer health destroyers hut 
health preservers/^ 

"We shape, ourselves, the joy or fear 
Of which the coming life is made, 
And fill our future atmosphere 
With sunshine or with shade.'" 

— Whitti&r. 

^ Order was the first law of creation. It is also the 
law of economy and conservation of energy in every 
direction. A business man and woman must have order 
about them if they expect success. A housewife will 
not stand at the top in her profession if she be disor- 
derly. She cannot accomplish with ease when in the 
midst of confusion, and cannot be considered a genuine 
home-maker. 

5^ Nothing is more disheartening to an orderly business 
man, or to a friend, than to step into a disorderly home. 
We may find the parlor in order, but the living rooms, 
the dininq; room and kitchen look as thouo^h a cvclone 
had hit them, and the pantry speaks of extravagance 
and waste from the bread box to the top shelf, where 
food stands exposed just as it was removed from the 
table. The Art of Living means order, economy, and 
an attractive home in every sense of that word. 



Women should know all the ins and outs of the art 



162 THE ART OF LIVING. 

of living as a business, then there need be no friction in 
the home. 

^ "The strength of a nation, especially of a republican 
nation, is in the intelligent and well-ordered homes of 
the people.'' — Mrs. Sigourney. 

^ "The curse of the present age is in parents educating 
their children to live on a plane above themselves; thus 
the parents starve themselves that the children may ap- 
pear well." — ^Yade. 

^ Parents shield their children from work, and the girls 
sit around, play, go out for pleasure, while the mother 
does all the work. There are too many ornamental boys 
and girls nowadays; the mother not only works for 
them, but cooks for and cares for their guests, while 
they have "just a lovely time," — mistaken kindness, 
that shows its fruits when placed in homes of their own. 



^ As people "get along in years" according to the alma- 
nac, the children think it is time for them to give up 
their property and their work and live with them. Don't 
do it. If you have but a small home keep busy and be 
your own mistress. Now is the time to live your best 
life, be happy, keep in touch with the world, get ac- 
quainted with yourself and grow young. 



BKIEF REFEESHMENTS FOR LEISURE MOMENTS. 163 

5^ It is no wonder there are so many poor people in the 
world, for those who can ill afford it will have what 
others do if it is possible to obtain it. 

^ Inferior cooks ruin the most expensive food, making 
it more fit for the garbage pail than the human stomach. 

^ Perfect yourselves in your work whatever it may be, 
and you will be trusted, command consideration, respect, 
and good wages for faithful service. 

5^ The moment you mention a change to some people 
there arises such a spirit of aggression that to attempt 
a better way would be worse than useless. Then be as 
d'iscreet as possible and converts will be made without 
knowing how it was done. 

5^ Had the stomach the power of photographing the com- 
motion caused by a hot dinner half masticated, drowned 
with hot tea, coffee, milk or ice water, followed by frozen 
puddings and creams, the illustration might prove of 
greater value than all previous physiological instruction. 

^ Introduce no unpleasant subject at the table. Do not 
inquire about the death, illness, or trouble of anyone. 
Leave all business worries in the office or store and 
household frets and domestic revolts and gossip outside 
the dining room. 



164 THE ART OF LIVING. 

^ True hospitalit}^ comes from heart service^, and not 
from table service. What is good for a guest is good 
for your own famih\ 

^The table should be so neat in all its appointments 
and food so vv^ell served that no apologies need be made 
should a chance guest appear at mealtime. 

^ "If you desire a guest's return, let him set the hour 
of liis departure and speed him on the hour.^' — Wade. 

^ All are not endowed with ability and wisdom to do 
what are called the great things of life. All are serv- 
ants, and the higher the service rendered the more is 
one a servant. There is no menial service unless we 
make it such. Labor is honorable and all should aim to 
do the best work if they would be great in their line of 
labor whether it be writing, teaching or sweeping ; wash- 
ing floors, chopping wood, digging ditches or conducting 
the affairs of a nation. And above all things, remember 
that those who do the lesser work make it possible for 
others to do the greater. 

5^ Love for one's work is the way to make it light, and 
never a troublesome drudgery, hence we should put our 
best talent into everything we do. 

5^ "I am my best not simply for myself, but for the 
world." — Phillips Brooks. 



PREPARE TO LIVE. 

•' All that is needed for humanity's redemption from all that is dwarf- 
ing the race is to come to full self -consciousness, knowing ourselves for 
what we are, beings of divine origin, divine constitution, and divine 
destiny."— 7?. Fay Mills. 

Our mentality and spirituality are broadening out and 
a few years are being added to the span of physical life. 
This means that a part of the human family are paus- 
ing in their career toward death and turning the tide 
toward life and so lessening the number of unconscious 
suicides. Our aim should be to attain to the finest con- 
ditions of robust health; to be men and women who are 
intelligently preparing themselves to live forever, and 
to occupy the present tenement in such a manner as it 
never has been occupied. Even "the oldest inhabitant" 
has not yet realized its possibilities, but this human 
temple shall in time to come be glorified by the wisdom 
we possess and the ideals we cherish. We have forgotten 
to make our Heaven right here every day, but instead 
look for it in the future. We do not remember that we 
are already immortals, living in the flesh, and preparing 
to die or live as we think best. 

But we should live and not die. With dominion over 
all things, should we not have sufficient dominion over 
ourselves to learn how to live beyond any accepted limit ? 
When men build a college, a church, a factory, a palace, 
or homes for themselves, they do not say, "It 's no matter 
what kind of a foundation is laid it will only last a hun- 
dred years at best," but they put the best of stone, brick, 
and timber into it, knowing that with proper care it will 



166 THE ART OF LIVING. 

stand indefinitely. These buildings represent the wealth 
of their accumulated energies, added to the wealth em- 
bodied in the material that from the tiniest grain of 
sand in the rock, to the smallest drop of sap in the tree, 
could not have been without Divine creation. Out from 
cosmos all has come, and each creative atom does its part 
and has had its mission in building the material uni- 
verse of which we are a part. Not only has the finger of 
Divinity touched all, but its essence dwells therein. 

Then if man builds his home of the best material with 
the thought that with suitable care it will stand at least 
as long as he requires it, even if it be centuries, with 
how much greater care should he build his personal 
house and the house of his family. 

Could we see every public teacher and leader in the 
most perfect physical and spiritual condition, and 
clothed with Divine inspiration that would give us live 
words from the living fountain, that teach us not only 
by example but by thorough education how to live in 
health of body and soul, we would witness steps toward 
manhood and womanhood, toward the development of 
every part of our being such as has never yet been seen, 
for we are all leading crippled lives, and only "see 
through a glass darkly." 

Who is to blame for abbreviated lives ? Who, indeed, 
for lives of usefulness ended suddenly on the rostrum, 
in the pulpit, the home, the street or at the banquet 
table? Cease blaming God or Providence, for they 
have nothing to do with it. It is time to realize that 
we should be masters in our own temple and that we are 
responsible for the working of its machinery just as 



PREPARE TO LIVE. 167 

surely as we are responsible for the order and care of 
any other piece of mechanism. Let us wake up to our 
possibilities and Prepare to Live. Is it not time to set 
a priceless value upon ourselves and our children, and 
care for them with far more than the scientific wisdom 
and skill which we bestow upon the animal race? We 
are of greater value than any other sentient life ; then 
let us begin at the foundation and bring to its aid suit- 
able material that shall build that life, and grow and 
keep it in repair. '' Too late," you say. It is never too 
late for anything in life's economies. The man of fifty 
looks out upon his barren field and says, "I would set 
that field over with fruit trees, but they would not benefit 
me; I shall not live to see them in bearing condition, 
or I shall not live to reap any benefit from timber I 
might start into growth." How narrow a mind, pessi- 
mistic and dyspeptic, and on the wrong side of selfish- 
ness that induces poverty of soul ! Another plants and 
reaps the benefit; he is one who would plant that others 
might reap if he did not, and so invites youth to his soul. 
Are we full of aches and pains and infirmities that 
have been our pets for years, until by care and love and 
close attention to their wants and airing them among 
our friends they have become larger than ourselves? 
Think about it, and how from a small beginning they 
have developed into unwieldy and undesirable propor- 
tions. There is time to right about face, look at them 
over our shoulder, turn over a new leaf, renew the mind 
toward the body with such thought and deed as shall 
make possible by gradual change a body with new life. 
It is possible to displace the old pets with flesh that need 



168 THE ART OF LIVING. 

not feel pain, with joints that move easily, with brain 
that thinks clearly and sends its building substance 
thrilling from head to foot, and the blood vibrating with 
new life free from obstructions that have been removed 
from its pathway. It has been said, "As man is regen- 
erative he has the matter of rebuilding himself into 
natural conditions absolutely in his own power, if he 
will but direct the forces at his command intelligently 
and honestly. If this is not correct there must have 
been some grievous error in his creation." 

Unconscious suicides, pause and ask whither you are 
tending. Are you not daily adding to the cable of habit, 
link after link, that as surely ends in suicide, as is the 
one who ends his life by suddenly severing the chain? 
Look back upon the way you have come and forward to 
the way you may go. If the ways of the past are tend- 
ing toward brevity, of years, it may be to your advantage 
to travel the other way and live. There is much to live 
for, and no one is so wealthy that he can afford to cast 
life carelessly away, or abridge it in any direction. 
Tliere is much to learn, and the world is our schoolroom 
and workshop. Living to die has been one of the most 
conspicuous occupations of the race, and we have not yet 
become aware of the fact. Birth, life, death, follow in 
rapid succession, and we do not ask why in millions of 
cases life is so brief, and we are not done ascribing to 
Providence the cause of our days of grief over departed 
youth, and the brilliant lights that go out later on. We 
travel the same road with quicksands under our feet, 
with nerves keyed to the tension limit, lest we fail to 
i^each some point for which we are aiming in life's 



PEEPARE TO LIVE. 



169 



honors or the wealth we fain would grasp. We neglect 
to rest or think that the temple in which we travel must 
sooner or later yield to the pressure, that its fine cords 
and wires must strain and stretch until perchance they 
suddenly snap, and the day is done for us. 

Although the average length of life is increasing, the 
world is still the camping ground of an educated civili- 
zation that produces invalids and semi-invalids, with 
pills, powders and potions, stimulants and narcotics 
their daily companions. In it is a creative part of the 
social fabric that produces physical, mental and social 
excrescences ; they are being daily born and made, and 
millions of money is being yearly expended to escort 
them comfortably through their wearisome lives. 

When will our public educators in all branches of 
business learn the Art of Living to live, that through 
education the world will gradually cease the cultivation 
of fruit that is in a state of preparation to die before its 
unsought and too often unwelcome advent into life? 
This little world of ours is a theater, and without its 
drama of comedy and tragedy it would be tame indeed. 
But through the contagion and culture of disease in its 
myriad forms, physical, moral, and social, which are a 
part of education toward death, they hold a surplus of 
the tragical that constantly appeals to our sympathies 
through the deep tragedies of daily life. The problem 
of how far preventable these things may be is yet in its 
infancy, and the time is ripe for us to take counsel with 
our best friend, the self within the temple, and apologize 
for the lack of respect we have shown in the past, and 
resolve to be more obedient to the highest and best with- 



170 THE ART OF LIVING. 

in, and so Prepare to Live. We need not remember so 
much about our birthdays, and so count the months and 
years according to the almanac, for there is no limit — 
no birth, no real death — only life here, there, and every- 
where. Ours is youth in its maturity blooming in the 
air of Heaven, here and there forever; and even in this 
house of clay it may become so ripe, so enlarged with 
wisdom, truth and love, that daily association will 
almost fail to realize that the time has come for the occu- 
pant to remove to a larger mansion, and be clothed in 
the invisible garments of his own weaving. 

There is no need to pause at the half century mile- 
stone when we have reared a family, lift the brown locks 
and say, "See the gray hairs, look at the wrinkles ; surely 
I am growing old !" and every day repeat the operation 
until you have made it a business to grow old, decrepit 
and gray ! We are in our prime just then, and bound- 
ing health with springing footsteps should be ours. 
Prepare to Live, for it is possible for the coming half 
century at least to be your best if you make it so. There 
is plenty of time for seed sowing, for its growth, blos- 
soming and fruitage even at sixty, seventy or eighty 
years. What may not the soul develop in a strong, 
healthy temple? But few have told us because they 
have not given attention to the matter of preparing to 
live. "But have you had experience, and do you know 
what you are asking of us T^ "Yes, I know, for out of 
the depths I have come more than once, else I could not 
have written this book." To live in the best sense will 
be to reach out toward the highest ideals we are capable 
of forming. 



PREPARE TO LIVE. 1"1 

The whole tenor of this book from cover to cover is 
to Prepare to Live as we have not yet done; to make the 
most of ourselves in these human temples, ^^ in no 
other way will it be possible to graduate with the highest 
honors into the higher school of perpetual education and 
youth. You who read these pages will begin to think 
about it, turn your thoughts upon yourselves and ask 
"How shall we begin?" You will read to "wagh and 
consider," for you have invited me to write^ First get 
health" and this message will aid you. Consult your 
bodily needs and attend to them, so shall the new and 
orderly temple keep in repair and almost thmk for itself . 
It only needs air, water, shelter, food, clothing, and free- 
dom It instinctively calls for these, but, unlike other 
sentient life, is helpless to supply them in their proper 
proportions unless you, the 1 within the temple, are com- 
petent through education to grant the needs m suitable 
manner. Prepare to Live ; be an example yourself then 
you can have no better occupation for a portion of your 
time and means than in helpfulness to others who desire 
to be moving toward the better way. None are too low, 
none too exalted, to be denied assistance from you. ihe 
world is your home, your kindergarten, your schoolroom 
and college, and there is no limit to work therein. 

The few are doing all they can. The harvest is ripe 
and may the new century add thousands to the army of 
educators who will aid in preparing millions to live. 
Deeds are thoughts materialized from spiritual ideals. 
This little world of ours, so grand and beautifu , is the 
realization of the Infinite Creative Ideal. We who have 
dominion over all material things are also creators. 



^^^ THE AKT OF LIVING. 



Then let us, through a practical knowledge of the Arf 
of Lmng, create beautiful temples of health for the soul 
thro^^h winch it may expand, breathe, think execute 
and live out its noblest ideals. ' 




r^ 






MAR 17 1903 



